By Athi Shankar
TASEK GELUGOR: Allegations of vote rigging has surfaced in the Tasek Gelugor PKR division polls held at the division office in Pokok Tampang here yesterday.
The victorious new chairman Mohamed Nasir Mohamed’s camp was accused of “helping” voters to mark crosses on valid ballot papers before they had cast the votes into the ballot boxes.
Nasir’s camp was also alleged to have “smuggled out” a valid ballot paper from the polling counter, made photocopies and marked crosses on the copies to guide voters before they cast their votes.
Observers said based on precedents set by many party elections in the country, the allegations were serious enough to nullify the Tasek Gelugor polls and warrant a re-election if found to be true.
The defeated incumbent chairman Mahamad Hashim’s camp had already lodged verbal complaints on the alleged malpractices with polling officer Saari Ahmad.
Mahamad’s camp is expected to lodge an official complaint with the party election committee headed by chairperson Dr Molly Cheah today.
Contacted later, Saari confirmed that he had recorded the verbal complaints from Mahamad’s team.
He would submit a report on the division's polling process, including the complaints, to the committee in the next few days.
Outgoing division secretary Azman Rahim, who won an ordinary committee berth, would also submit a written complaint on the alleged vote rigging to the committee.
“We all wanted a free and fair electoral process. But what happened at the divisional polls was shameful. I saw a voter casting an already marked ballot paper into the ballot box,” he told FMT.
The party’s Democracy Watch coordinator Yusmadi Yusoff called on Cheah’s committee to promptly investigate the allegations.
Democracy Watch is an internal party watchdog formed by volunteers comprising party grassroots leaders, members and supporters.
New youth chief: Baseless allegations
However, newly elected youth chief Syed Mikael Rizal Hamid rubbished the allegations.
“Our team won two-thirds of the vote cast. If we had rigged the election then the results would have been narrower. The results revealed that we received a clear mandate,” he told FMT.
In the election, Nasir’s camp swept all positions that were up for grabs.
Nasir polled 142 votes to defeat Mahamad, who received 72 votes, to win the chairman post.
For the deputy chairman post, incumbent Jamil Sakiman from Nasir’s camp got 129 votes to triumph over challenger Johari Kassim, who got 76.
Incumbent vice-chairman Hassan Jab retained his position defeating S Muniandi from Mahamad's camp. Hassan received 145 votes against his rival’s 65.
For the women’s wing chief post, Norsiah Arshad defeated Rahaya Mahamad while state PKR youth secretary Syed Mikael vanquished Mohd Zamri Abd Majid to become the new youth chief.
Mohd Zamri and Rahaya are from Mahamad’s camp.
The Tasek Gelugor parliamentary division comprises the Teluk Air Tawar, Permatang Berangan and Sungai Dua state seats.
In the 2008 general election, PKR contested the Teluk Air Tawar seat, allowing PAS to contest in the parliamentary and other two state seats.
PKR, which contested the Tasek Gelugor parliamentary constituency in 2004 general election, did not contest the last time around due to the lack of a viable candidate.
However, the party was expected to press its claim to contest the seat in the next general election.
Ideally the winning faction would have a strong say in deciding the candidates for the Tasek Gelugor and Teluk Air Tawar seats.
TI-M calls for money-free polls
In another development, Transparency International – Malaysia urged PKR to ensure that its party polls are free of money politics.
“If PKR stands for clean, accountable and transparent government, then all its candidates must walk the talk and refrain from money politicking,” said the NGO's president Paul Low in a statement today.
He hoped that the election will be conducted freely, fairly and free of money politics so that candidates are elected based on their integrity and competency, and without the influence of money.
He said it was important for PKR to ensure its election was clean because it was an indication if the party can be trusted to form a credible government.
