PKR SPENT RM2M FOR PARTY POLLS THIS YEAR
Polls conducted over 2 years, says party election head
PKR has spent almost RM2 million on its party polls this year. Party election chairman Datuk Rashid Din said, however, the additional costs were because the polls were conducted in stages by state over two years.
He said another reason was that the membership had increased exponentially since Pakatan Harapan’s win in the 14th General Election.
“The polls involve 218 branches and some 800,000 members who are eligible to vote,” he said, on the party election which would begin next month following the closing of the nomination process on Sunday.
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been declared the next president of PKR, winning unopposed.
However, Anwar would assume the role only after the PKR national congress on Nov 16 and 17, Rashid said.
“Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail will remain the party president till then,” he said.
The race for the deputy presidency will see vice-president Rafizi Ramli challenge incumbent Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.
Twelve names are in the pot for the four elected vice-presidential posts.
Among them are four current vice-presidents Nurul Izzah Anwar, Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, Dr Xavier Jayakumar and Chua Tian Chang.
(PKR has seven vice-presidents, but three of these are appointees.)
Rashid said PKR had, in 2014, began charging nomination fees for candidates due to the costs involved in holding party polls, and this time was no different.
For central leadership council positions, the fee was RM1,000, vice-president nominees were charged RM3,000 while for that of deputy president and president, the nomination fee were RM5,000 and RM10,000.
Asked to comment on Rafizi’s announcement of forming a team to contest the party polls, Rashid said the announcement did not go against the party’s constitution, adding that it was the right of anyone contesting to come up with a campaign strategy.
“The party encourages competition in its elections as this is something that is healthy for PKR. We get to see what kind of support our leadership lineup has.”