By FMT Staff
UPDATED 7.55PM KOTA KINABALU: Several PKR leaders vying for divisional posts in Sabah have resorted to using illegal immigrants to win.
"It is quite rampant in Sabah. Many contestants who have no chance of winning are bringing in illegals to vote for them," a local leader told FMT.
He added that in the Kudat division, the main contender Mursalin Tanjul, believed to be aligned to PKR vice- president Azmin Ali, brought with him 800 “new members” for voting today.
"They all had temporary MyKads with them," said the local leader.
He claimed that the contenders who have little support in Sabah were using illegals as a way to break the stronghold held by PKR vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan in the state.
Jeffrey has thrown his support behind PKR leader Zaid Ibrahim for the deputy's post. Azmin is also vying for the post.
"Azmin's boys are trying to use whatever ways possible to come to power in Sabah," said another local leader close to Jeffrey.
Incumbent's membership vanishes
He said that underhand tactics were also used at the Silam division where the incumbent division youth chief Johan Abdul had his party membership mysteriously missing, thus disabling him from contesting.
He is being challenged by an Azmin man, Johani Abdul Halim.
“What's strange is that Johan is not only an incumbent but is also a well-known local leader. He had no problems in submitting his nomination papers but now suddenly, he is not even a member,” said the leader.
Meanwhile, FMT learnt that almost all Sabah divisions have nominated Zaid to contest for the deputy's post. In some divisions, he garnered a large number of votes to soundly beat Azmin in getting the nod.
“He seemed to have done better that what was anticipated. We are pleasantly surprised by this. We will have to continue working hard,” said an insider from Zaid's team.
Jeffrey and Nurul Izzah Anwar meanwhile were the favourites amongst the Sabah divisions for the vice-president's posts.
Chaos at Indera Mahkota, Raub
While illegal immigrants were making news in divisional polls in Sabah, there was another type of issue which cropped up at Indera Mahkota and Raub divisions, both in Pahang.
Both the divisions first had appeared to have given the nod for Zaid, albeit by razor-thin margins, over Azmin.
However things took a new twist with the arrival of “party members” after the counting of votes had been completed, to turn the tide to favour Azmin.
“At the end, with the voting of these late, late-comers, Azmin won the nominations from these two divisions. We are curious on how the party's election monitoring team could allow for such a thing to happen,” observers told FMT.
It is uncertain if Zaid's team will be lodging an official complaint over the issue.
“He should lodge a complaint. It was a close fight in these two divisions but Zaid won them legitimately. The late-comers should not have been allowed to vote,” added the observers.
Zaid however faced no such troubles in winning the nod from the Jerantut division and at least seven divisions in Sabah.
Azmin on the other hand won the nomination from Tanah Merah, Kelantan. Party's polling observers told FMT that Azmin also won nominations from Silam and Kudat.
Besides Zaid and Azmin, one other person obtained a nomination today for the deputy's post - Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh getting the support of the Cameron Highlands division.
Seventeen divisions have nominated Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to retain the president's post while the Arau division in Perlis had nominated party advisor Anwar Ibrahim for the top post despite him saying that he wasn't interested in contesting.
Candidates need only two nominations to qualify to contest.
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