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Sunday, 27 September 2009

Pro-Tem MIC Committee Finds Irregularities During MIC Election

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 (Bernama) -- The 'Pro-Tem MIC 2009 Election Irregularity Committee', set up by seven MIC members, wants a fresh party election to be held as it claims there were irregularities during the party election on Sept 12.

The secretary of the pro-tem committee, N. Saaran, said he had raised several issues in a letter of complaint sent to the chairman of the MIC Election Committee, Datuk K. Vijayanathan, including the abuse of power by MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu when the election was going on.

"We have come to (the) conclusion that the Election Committee that conducted the MIC general election was not independent, was not transparent. There were various irregularities that we have gathered.

"We actually sent notices to the Election Committee Chairman, we had requested for explanation why such irregularities had taken place," he told a news conference, here on Saturday.

Also present at the press conference were members of the pro-tem committee, including its chairman, P. Subramaniam who lost in the election for the post of vice-president.

Saaran claimed that the irregularities discovered at the election included Samy Vellu's cancellation of the ban on the use of handphones whereas Vijayanathan had issued a reminder to all delegates before the balloting.

"One of the delegates was caught using the handphone to take a photograph of the ballot paper, this was brought up by one of the candidates to the election committee, however no action had been taken," he claimed.

Subramaniam said other complaints raised with the MIC Election Committee Chairman in four letters sent on Sept 18, 23 and 25 were the actions of the candidates endorsed by Samy Vellu who had violated the rules against campaigning.

"Candidates were prohibited to campaign after 12.00 noon on Sept 11, but this rule was not followed by this so called official line-up, there were campaigns after 12.00 where there were campaigning in Sentul Curry House by the Youth, Wanita and Puteri MIC wings," he claimed.

"And not only that, on the election day, copies of a Tamil newspaper, Tamil Nesan, were distributed to all 1,400 delegates in the hall. In the paper, you could see a lot of campaigning by the official line-up, which was against the rule on campaigning," he said.

Subramaniam questioned why no action was taken whereas the MIC Election Committee Chairman had earlier issued a warning that any candidate caught campaigning after the time stipulated would automatically be disqualified from contesting.

He said his group was waiting for an explanation from Vijayanathan before taking further action.

Asked what action they would take if there was no change in the decision, he said they would then decide whether to remain in the MIC or join another party.

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