KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim,jailed twice for what he says were trumped-up sodomy charges,said on Thursday he has the support needed to become primeminister and denied calling for a potential challenger to resignover a new gay sex scandal.
Indications of divisions in Anwar's People's Justice Party(PKR) surfaced after a series of videos circulated amongpoliticians and journalists in June, allegedly showing EconomicAffairs Minister Azmin Ali and another man having sex.
Gay sex is illegal in Malaysia, and carries penalties ofjail and whipping if convicted.
Azmin, the deputy head of PKR and seen as close to PrimeMinister Mahathir Mohamad, said he was not in the videos whichhe called a "nefarious plot" to end his career.
Anwar denied news reports that he had called for Azmin toresign if the videos were proved to be authentic. Anwar said hiscomments were taken out of context.
"On the issue of the sex video, from the beginning weexpressed disgust at the manner the gutter politics has beenplayed," Anwar told reporters in parliament on Thursday.
Anwar brushed aside talk of a challenge from Azmin for thepremiership.
"I've got the numbers, I've got the support of PakatanHarapan and the prime minister," he said, referring to theruling coalition of which PKR is the biggest party. "It is notfair to me or to Azmin to indicate otherwise."
Anwar was earlier rebuked by more than 20 members of PKR'ssupreme council over his comments reported on Wednesday.
"We urge (Anwar) as the Party President to stop making suchdivisive statements," the council said in a statement. "We callupon him to work instead to unite the party in the interest ofour members, Pakatan Harapan and our country."
Anwar said he accepted the criticism, which he said was acall for him to strengthen party unity.(Reporting by Joseph Sipalan; Editing by Nick Macfie)