updated version

Abdul Rahman Othman replaced Dr Chandra Muzaffar as Keadilan deputy president when he defeated Muhammad Nur Manuty in a close contest at the party's annual general meeting tonight.

Abdul Rahman, who is party treasurer, won by a tissue-thin majority of 44 votes against Muhammad, a former leader of the Malaysian Muslim Youth Movement, or Abim.

Abdul Rahman received 521 votes against 477 for Muhammad.

The deputy leader post was left vacant after Chandra decided to decline nomination.

Vice-presidents: Azmin, Chua and Sheikh Azmi

Meanwhile, the non-Abim faction also appeared triumphant in the tussle for other positions when its candidates bagged the three hotly contested vice-president posts.

Incumbents Tian Chua and Sheikh Azmi Ahmad, who retained their posts, were joined by their 'team-mate', Keadilan supreme council member Azmin Ali.

Azmin was the top scorer with 578 votes, Tian garnered 562, while Sheikh Azmi picked up 529.

Chua is currently being detained for two years under the Internal Security Act, which allows detention without trial, for allegedly seeking to topple the government by militant means.

The losers - party's secretary-general Anuar Tahir, information chief Ruslan Kassim and Youth vice-chief N Gobalakrishnan - are said to be linked to the Abim faction within Keadilan.

Ruslan narrowly missed the last spot by two votes.

Shouting match

On Monday, two of the candidates - Azmin and Gobalakrishnan - were involved in a controversial shouting match at the party's supreme council meeting.

It was reported that Azmin made a derogatory remark against his colleague.

However, both leaders have since dismissed the incident as a "minor misunderstanding".

The following is the official results of the vice-presidents race:

Azmin Ali - 578

Tian Chua - 562

Sheikh Azmi Ahmad - 529

Ruslan Kassim - 527

Anuar Tahir - 380

N Gobalakrishnan - 378