SUBANG JAYA, Aug 15 — Former PKR leader Zuraida Kamaruddin said today Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) is scheduled to hold a "grand event” next week to announce her membership alongside several other defectors.

The planned celebration is ostensibly aimed at quashing doubts over their partisan status, following talks that most of Bersatu’s top leaders were averse to receiving Zuraida because of her close ties with Senior Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.

Azmin is PKR’s former deputy president.

"I think everyone knows that we are already in Bersatu,” Zuraida replied to a query by Malay Mail at a press conference held this morning.

"But nevertheless, we will have a grand event on the 22nd where we will make it official.”

Azmin, Zuraida and several others left PKR in early March to trigger one of the country’s worst political crises and shortened the rule of a coalition he helped put in power.

Recently, Azmin was forced to downplay the delay by Bersatu in accepting his membership application as well as that of other MPs who followed him out of PKR.

Bersatu, now leading the ruling Perikatan Nasional coalition as a minority party, was also a member of the Pakatan Harapan bloc then.

The delay has fuelled talk that the PKR defectors could set up a new party.

Azmin denied the rumour.