Almost half a million PKR members will go to the polls to elect a new party leadership starting the end of this month.

Party election committee chairperson Johari Abdul said the election will be carried out in stages similar to how it was carried out in the 2010 party election.

A total of 496,923 out of 500,001 members are eligible to vote in this party election, he said.

The voting schedule by states is as follow:

April 26 - Sarawak, Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang

April 27 - Sarawak, Johor and Malacca

May 3 - Sabah, Kedah and Perlis

May 4 - Sabah, Perak and Pulau Pinang

May 10 - Federal territories, Kuala Lumpur, Negeri Sembilan

May 11 - Selangor

A total of 247 candidates have confirmed their candidacy for various positions at the central and state level.

Johari said for the central leadership contest, there will be one position for president and another for deputy followed by four vice-presidents and 20 central leadership council members.

As for the party's youth and women’s wings, he added, they will each have a chief and deputy chief followed by three vice-chiefs and 20 exco members.

At the division level, he said, it will comprise of a division chief, a deputy and 15 committee members.

PKR Youth at the division level has the same composition while PKR Wanita only provides for seven committee member positions, he added.

As with the previous election, Johari said all eligible members can vote by writing the number of their favourite candidate on the ballot paper.

By convention, the polls will open at 10am and is expected to close by 4pm.

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