PKR’s political bureau has accepted former Federal Territories PKR chief Zaid Ibrahim’s decision to withdraw from the deputy presidency race.

This means that his details will have to be removed from the ballot papers that will be used during this and next weekend’s round of balloting.

NONE The latest development was confirmed by the party’s central elections committee chairperson Dr Molly Cheah ( left ).

"I believe that the decision has been made (by the political bureau). But anyway, if a person withdraws one way or another, we have to accept it.

"So as of today, we will not be printing any more ballot papers with his name on it," she said.

Zaid had recently caused a stir  with his announcement that he would be withdrawing from the deputy presidency race in a blog posting early Monday morning.

However, the legitimacy of his announcement was still a big question mark when secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail pointed out that he had yet to hand in an official letter to the party HQ.

Despite that, Zaid threw caution to the winds, dismissing the need for anything in black-and-white since that his intentions had been very clear, he said.

No plans to stop polls

In the meantime, Cheah also put a lid on the calls to abort or suspend the party polls amidst claims or irregularities and fraud.

When asked if there are any plans to abort the elections, she said: “No, I don’t think so.”

NONE Although confirming that she has received a memorandum of protest from another deputy president aspirant, Mustaffa Kamil Ayub ( right ), “yesterday or the day before, I can’t remember lah ”, she said that she would need to study it thoroughly first.

She also dismissed Mustaffa's 48-hour ultimatum issued on Tuesday.

“Of course they’ll give deadlines to their demands. It’s no big deal. Politicians will say a lot of things,” said Cheah, a doctor by profession.

Mustaffa had previously insisted that the party should halt their elections, alleging malpractices especially in certain divisions.

It is understood that he would also be meeting Cheah today to forward his allegations of 162 instances of irregularities in the party polls.

However, Saifuddin had also waved off his claims, insisting that the secretariat had only received six complaints in the ongoing supreme council elections.

At press time, Mustaffa could not be contacted.