Chaos and the lost votes
Strange events overshadow Selangor leg of PKR polls
Rafizi Ramli is nursing a sore eye as Datuk Seri Azmin Ali makes great strides towards the PKR deputy president’s post. In party elections riddled with technical hiccups, fights, chaos and confusion, come new claims of military personnel at the ballot box – and votes gone missing.
KLANG: After an almost uneventful start last week, the second leg of the PKR party polls was in a state of chaos at several divisions.
The high stakes involved in the Selangor leg of the party polls appear to be a factor behind some of the strange events that occurred.
Among the divisions that saw drama yesterday were the Petaling Jaya Utara, Gombak, Puchong and Selayang divisions.
At the Petaling Jaya Utara division, 30 military personnel in three batches of 10 each had come to e-vote for their candidate of choice.
This is indeed questionable as military personnel are prohibited from being members of political parties or participating in any activities related to politics.
“We found this very strange as military personnel cannot join any political parties and here they were trying to vote,” said division chief Elizabeth Wong who had won uncontested.
She said one of Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu’s staff was immediately contacted to find out if military personnel could be involved in politics.
“The staff called up one of the generals who confirmed that army personnel cannot be in political parties.
“We will be sending all their names and identity numbers to the ministry,” said Wong, who is Bukit Lanjan assemblyman.
Apart from that, she said some members from the Subang division had also come to e-vote in Petaling Jaya Utara.
“We told them that Subang was last week and they cannot vote here but they insisted on doing it here,” said Wong.
She said the police were called in and seven young men were arrested.
In Selayang, incumbent division chief William Leong said a minor commotion occurred in his division after some individuals continued campaigning for their candidates even when they were inside the polling centre.
“Actually, once they are inside the fencing of the polling centre, they cannot campaign anymore ... and so arguments broke out,” said Leong, who is defending his position in a three-cornered fight.
In Puchong, the Light Strike Force had to be called in to control a fight that took place between two groups.
The groups started shoving each other after waiting for more than three hours to vote.
Michael Tamil, who is one of five candidates vying for the division chief ’s position, said the huge commotion was mainly due to the sluggish e-voting system.
“There was a long wait and some people even fainted,” he said.
“The bar code required to e-vote for every individual was also slow in loading.”
To add to the chaos, said Michael, people were also randomly entering the polling halls.
“Only one person is supposed to be at every tab to vote but in Puchong there were two or three fellows standing at one tab,” he said.
Michael alleged that party election committee personnel, who were stationed at the Puchong polling centre, did not do anything to control the situation.
In Gombak, sources said two groups clashed while waiting to vote.
When contacted and asked about the fracas, Selangor Mentri Besar and Sungai Tua assemblyman Amirudin Shari said he would make an announcement tomorrow.
However, Amirudin downplayed the incident when reporters met him at the polling centre earlier in the day.
“It was not a fight but just ordinary shouting and the situation is under control,” he said.
Amirudin is contesting for the Gombak division chairman’s position after incumbent Datuk Seri Azmin Ali decided not to defend it.
The second leg of the Selangor party elections involves Puchong, Gombak, Petaling Jaya (PJ) Utara, PJ Selatan, Kuala Langat, Klang and Selayang divisions, numbering 83,000 party members.