KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 ― Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has described a leaked audio recording of two speakers who sounded like him and PKR counterpart, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, as fake.

Saying he was “disappointed and shocked” by the spread of the clip, Zahid claimed it was a plot to destroy Umno.

“I vehemently deny the existence of the conversation such as in the audio recording or any conversation between me and Datuk Seri Anwar after the recent Umno General Assembly.

“This is a malicious and disgusting political ploy that only confirms the ongoing efforts to weaken and destroy Umno.

“I believe there will be more vile games like this to further demean and destroy Umno,” he said in a statement today.

Zahid insisted that he has never gone against the decisions made at the Umno supreme council and during the party’s annual assembly last month.

“I have instructed my officers to immediately lodge a police report to enable an investigation to be carried out to identify the mastermind of this ‘scheme of thing’,” he said.

The phrase “scheme of things” appeared to be a veiled reference to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, as a person who sounded like him used it in a leaked audio clip last year.

This morning, a four-minute video containing the recorded phone conversation purportedly between Zahid and Anwar was posted online.

The two speakers discussed Zahid’s speech at the Umno assembly declaring that his party would contest the 15th general election on its own, and said this was not an end to their joint efforts.

Last month, Anwar disclosed that his PKR and Umno have started preliminary discussions on the possibility of cooperating for the 15th general election.

Publicly, Zahid has denied this repeatedly.