Anwar: I'll tell Ambiga to call off Bersih rally if...

(Malaysiakini) PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim said that he would tell Bersih 2.0 chairperson S Ambiga to call off the July 9 rally if Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak can assure tomorrow that elections will be free and fair.

"I will call Ambiga and tell her to call off Bersih, if Najib can promise free and fair elections tomorrow," he told over two-thousand PKR members at the party's election convention in Shah Alam today.

Anwar (left) said this in his concluding speech at the convention, that aimed to educate and energise the party's grassroots election machinery who were mostly present at the event.

The Permatang Pauh MP was trying to make a point, arguing that the BN regime will not dare to allow free and fair elections because the ruling coalition knows that it no longer has the favour of the voters and thus has to resort to dirty means to cling on to power.

Former Bar Council chief Ambiga was however not amused, and in an immediate response ticked Anwar off for overstepping his role.

"It is not up to him to decide,” the activist quipped.

“We have decided to hold the rally and it is we who will decide on whether or not to hold it," she told reporters prior to the official launch of the Bersih 2.0 rally in Kuala Lumpur tonight.

Ambiga: 'It's not about me'

Ambiga (right) also refuted right wing pressure group Perkasa's allegations made in the latter's launch of their anti-Bersih rally in Kuala Lumpur earlier today.

"Bersih is not about the individual; it is not about me. I will not respond to their character attacks," she said.

The lawyer added that she will neither respond to Perkasa nor lodge police reports on the group burning her photo and making threats against her during their event.

"Free and fair elections is our message, and our means is peaceful. If there is violence on that day it will not be from our side," assured the Bersih chief.

The Berish 2.0 coalition for free and fair elections comprising over 60 NGOs and political parties is planning a mega rally on July 9 to press for electoral reform.

The organisers aim the event to be even bigger than the first Bersih rally in November 2007, that saw 40,000 turning Kuala Lumpur into a sea of yellow shirted protestors demanding changes to the electoral system that critics say is favouring the ruling party.