The polling date of the PKR election cannot be postponed as it violates the regulations set by the Registrar of Societies (ROS), said the party’s central election committee chairman Rashid Din.

He said the ROS had already fixed Nov 16 and 17 as the dates for the party’s National Congress and delaying the party election was a breach of RoS rules.

"Hence, before the congress takes place, leaders should be voted at the party election to be held at the state-level from Sept 22 to Oct 28. We cannot delay the election dates because we had already done so before," he said.

Earlier, in a statement, PKR vice-president Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin called on the party election to be postponed until the Port Dickson parliamentary by-election was over.

He said the move was to ensure accountability besides ensuring that the party machinery and all those involved were present at the constituency during the run-up to the by-election.

Yesterday, Port Dickson MP Danyal Balagopal Abdullah announced he had vacated the parliamentary seat to give way to PKR's president-elect Anwar Ibrahim to contest in the parliamentary seat.

Rashid said the election process in every party division was running smoothly so far.

"We have held an election-briefing session on party’s e-ballot system. Members now understand the e-ballot system which they will for the first time, use in the coming party elections” he said.

He said the party’s election committee would hold an election briefing in Seremban, Negri Sembilan and would continue to do so in other states until the election.

About 800,000 PKR members are eligible to vote for candidates at divisional and central executive council level. - Bernama