PETALING JAYA, Nov 15 — This weekend, two political parties will have annual conventions that will leave a mark on the country’s political history.

The Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) convention will see lots of fanfare but Parti Gerakan Malaysia’s (Gerakan) event may not even make the lead story in the mainstream media.

The PKR national convention, which begins on Friday, is expected to be a stormy affair following the completion of its turbulent party election that saw the party clearly split in half.

The election results will be announced on Saturday and the winners will take their seats on the stage before the day’s debates on resolutions begin.

While Datuk Seri Azmin Ali will walk tall as he retains his deputy president’s post in a hard-fought battle against challenger, former party vice-president Rafizi Ramli, unity and loyalty in the party appears to have been destroyed and in pieces.

Azmin’s win by a small margin may be the hot issue in the debate because Rafizi had already spoken about the legitimacy of a small-margin victory and the push for re-election may be raised even though this was shot down by the central election committee earlier this week.

The election for the deputy president’s post was too intense to assume party members will fall back in line even though Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will assume the post of party president, a figure that united Malaysians of all races to push for reformation in the country’s historically racial political background.

Success has its fallouts, as the saying goes, as Anwar’s noble dream of a full democracy where every member of the party carries one vote has given birth to opportunists who take advantage of the system.

The party’s recently concluded election saw division chiefs fighting each other to be retained or elected, which added to the already troubled e-voting system implemented for the first time.

The finger-pointing and blame game are expected to take centre stage in the convention as debaters for the losing side are expected to throw ‘bombs’ as there have been allegations of missing votes, computer glitches and vote buying with reports lodged with the police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

The worst-case scenario for Rafizi will be that he not only fails to unseat Azmin in a do-or-die battle, but his team also loses in the vice-presidents’ race with only Nurul Izzah Anwar left standing against three on Azmin’s side and only five of Rafizi’s team members are voted into the 20 supreme council positions.

In short, Rafizi will now have to admit defeat and bow out of the party’s political mainstream until 2021 for the next round.

While the PKR convention is expected to dominate the front pages, Gerakan’s annual general assembly will see a changing of guard as the party vice-president Datuk Dominic Lau will compete against deputy Youth chief Andy Yong Kim Seng for the post of party president.

Following the resignation of party president Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong on September 16 and the party’s decision to leave Barisan Nasional (BN) in June, the party is now searching for its soul and role in the changed political landscape.

Once representing ‘English-educated Chinese and intellectuals’, the party is now left on the track of irrelevance as its role and struggles are taken over by DAP, a party that also replaces BN’s Chinese-based MCA.

Gerakan left BN after being in the coalition for 45 years and it now has to re-chart its own destiny, a position it was in during the start of its formation in 1968 and took over Penang in the 1969 general election.

With a totally different scenario and political landscape, the party’s new leadership will have to take stock of its membership because it may be a ship without a crew after it lost all seats it contested in the May 9 general election.