Why bar the press? asks Negri leader
SEREMBAN: The Negri Sembilan PKR leadership has questioned the action of some party election committee officers, who barred the media from covering the state party polling process.
State PKR information chief Mokhtar Ahmad said the media had been barred from some polling centres in the state.
He said the actions of these election committee officers were not in line with the party’s goal of proving that PKR elections were an open and transparent affair.
“We were made to understand that the media are allowed to enter polling stations to cover the elections. But of course, they cannot move around freely and must follow the instructions of election committee officers.
“However, we have received complaints that members of the media were not allowed to enter some polling centres. This should not have happened.
“The election committee officers should use good judgment and allow the media to do their job.
“In fact, the party needs media coverage of the election process,” he told the New Straits Times Press here yesterday.
It is understood that the polling centres which the media had been barred from were in Tampin, Jempol, Teluk Kemang and Rembau.
The elections elsewhere went on smoothly, with more than 40,000 PKR members casting their ballots.
However, there were polling centres that opened an hour later than the 9am opening time.
Among the branches of interest was Tampin, where state party leader and menteri besar, Aminuddin Harun, was vying to take the reins of the branch from Zulkapli Kassim.
In the Rasah branch, Mokhtar was trying to unseat his elder brother, Ismail, who is state rural development committee chairman, as branch chief.
Checks at the Rembau branch saw party members queuing up as early as 7am to cast their votes. One member, M. Kavita, 40, said she had arrived at 10am, but until 12.30pm, she had yet to cast her ballot.
She claimed that the hot weather had caused some members to skip voting and go home.
Rembau branch leader candidate Mohd Nazree Mohd Yunus said he had received complaints that there were problems with the e-voting system.
“The atmosphere here is good, though there were some complaints about the e-voting system, which sometimes took up to 20 minutes before the ballot can go through.
“The process needs to be finetuned,” he said.
Nazree, who is private secretary to the deputy communications and multimedia minister, was challenging incumbent branch leader Yusop Tapa.
His other rivals include Muhammad Zakir Hassan, R. Tanggam and Syahrul Nizam.