In a Facebook post, Puad questioned who was responsible for making the recording go viral, saying the act of leaking it was clearly politically motivated.

Noting that the recording was of very good quality, he said the conversation must have been recorded with good equipment which normal people could not afford to own.

“This scandal of recording a personal conversation, especially involving a political opponent, is a ‘black day’ in Malaysia’s democracy.

“Cruel politicking will not end. The party-hopping cluster (of MPs) and the recording of phone conversations exist because the government of the day doesn’t have a clear majority,” he said.

According to the unconfirmed recording, believed to have taken place soon after Umno’s annual general assembly in March, Anwar quipped that this was his first time following the assembly in the past 22 years, to which the Umno president said, “Don’t worry, that is only tactical”.

In his opening speech at the assembly on March 28, Zahid said Umno would be going it alone and contesting under the Barisan Nasional (BN) banner in the next general election (GE15). He added that the party’s Supreme Council had also decided on “No PPBM, no Anwar, no DAP”.

In the four-minute long recording, Anwar also praised Zahid’s speech and said he was “very proud” of him, while the pair also confirmed a meeting on Tuesday night that week.

FMT has reached out to Anwar and Zahid’s press secretaries to obtain confirmation on the recording.