Police report lodged over alleged vote-rigging

MELAKA: Supporters of candidates vying for positions in the Tangga Batu division here in the PKR party elections have lodged a police report alleging manipulation in the e-voting system.

Some 50 supporters gathered at the Batang Tiga police station on Sunday, saying that the e-voting system was manipulated to the point of some of the votes going missing.

Abdullah Ali and Alias Abd Wahab, who were vying to be the division chief in a four-cornered fight, later lodged a police report claiming there were discrepancies in the whole voting process.

The other contenders are Klebang assemblyman Gue Teck and Rahmat Yusof.

Unofficially, Gue Teck led in the race, followed by Abdullah, Alias and Rahmat. Abdullah was behind Gue Teck with a razor-thin majority of 31 out of 787 votes.

Abdullah and Alias were neck and neck in the contest.

However, disputes surfaced when 816 votes allegedly vanished and were unaccounted for.

PKR election chairman Datuk Rashid Din said the voting in five out of six divisions in Melaka was affected by computer- related glitches as well as one division in Negri Sembilan.

As a result, the outcome of the polls in these two states where Rafizi Ramli claimed victory over Datuk Seri Azmin Ali in the deputy presidency contest has yet to be officially announced.

When met yesterday, Abdullah alleged that gerrymandering was planned to ensure victory for Rafizi’s camp.

“Why were announcements made even before the official results were out?” he asked.

Abdullah said he hoped the party’s central election committee (JPP) would engage IT experts to do a forensic probe to assess if there was cheating.

Meanwhile, Gue Teck, who is also Melaka PKR deputy chairman, is against holding a re-election in the state. He said JPP should announce the results after resolving the issue.

“Not only will fatigue set in, there will also be a waste of money and resources,” he told reporters here.

Meanwhile, in Seremban, several Jelebu PKR members want the JPP to consider the 315 votes categorised as “spoilt” before a decision is made on a revote.

Mohamed Zabidi Abdullah, who unofficially won the division’s top post by three votes in a threecornered fight on Saturday, said it would not be fair to members if the votes were not considered.

“The returning officer said the votes could not be counted under the e-voting system due to server and Internet problems during the voting process.

“We hope the party will count the 315 votes before a decision is made to ask members to revote,” he said when contacted.

Jelebu is the only one of eight divisions in Negri Sembilan which reported a voting glitch.

Due to this, the overall official results in the state have not been released. The division has 3,439 registered members.

Mohamed Zabidi lodged a police report on the matter at the Kuala Klawang police station.

In Saturday’s polls, he obtained 178 votes while Yusmazmi Ahmad Yusuf polled 175 and Maslan Yusuf 69.