PKR polls: Leaked ballot papers surface again

By FMT Staff
UPDATED KUALA LUMPUR: While the PKR elections to pick national leaders entered its final day today, pictures of ballots papers, which should be issued after 10am to voters, have been furnished to FMT through an-email indicating a leak of the ballots, further strengthening claims of electoral fraud.

FMT received an e-mail early this morning and it contained photographs of ballot papers, for the post of deputy president and vice-presidents.

These ballot papers, with serial numbers, are only supposed to have been issued to the party members after 10am.

Earlier this month, PKR secretary general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said that the party used different colour of ballot papers every week and it had been revealed that the colour is pink this weekend, the same as the photographs of the ballots sent in the e-mail.

The party is holding its elections to pick national leaders over the past four weekends, The final lap of the polls is today. PKR would hold its general assembly next weekend and announce the winners of the polls.
The party became the first political organisation in the country to introduce the one-member, one-vote system where ordinary members vote to pick national leaders.

While the system was to give ordinary members more say on who they want as leaders, the election had been mired with controversy after it was discovered that there had been election malpractices and mismanagement of the electoral process.
Allegations unchecked
The severity of the allegations remained unchecked so far, with the party saying that it was investigating claims of fraud in the polls.
The election also saw Zaid Ibrahim, a deputy president aspirant, pulling out of contest citing election fraud and manipulation. He had set Dec 16 to resign from the party.
The deputy president's race is now being led by party de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's blue-eyed-boy Azmin Ali. The only other contender is Perak PKR chief Mustaffa Kamil Ayub, who has in the past week said that he was contesting the polls under protest.
The e-mail sent to FMT reads: "Attached are the ballot papers for today's PKR elections."
"I am only sending this as I trust that you will do the necessary to ensure that this shenanigans that is legitimised as an election is made known," said the anonymous e-mail.
More than 30 PKR divisions will go to polls today. They include 13 divisions from Johor, 16 divisions from Sarawak and another seven divisions from Selangor. The divisions in Selangor are Gombak, Ampang, Hulu Langat, Selayang, Kuala Selangor, Pandan and Hulu Langat.
The issue of leaked ballot papers were raised before but the party brushed aside any claims of irregularities, citing that the ballot papers had tight security aspects, among which the colour coding was one.
Police in Puchong, mutiny in Ayer Hitam
The month-long election process which came to an end today continued to see further claims of irregularities.
Following an attempt by disgruntled members to stop polling in Hulu Selangor yesterday, the Ayer Hitam division in Johor today went a step further by refusing to hold elections.

The division refused to hold polls, despite being instructed by the party to do so, after claiming that the party secretariat had failed to follow procedures in not giving proper notice.

Meanwhile in Puchong, the police had to intervene to stop two competing vice-presidential candidates from accusing each other of “stealing the elections”.

One of the candidates had accused the elections officers of blatanly supporting his rival, resulting in a tense situation. The police were called in to escort the ballot boxes to the party headquarters in Petaling Jaya.

A group of members also gathered at the party headquarters today to protest the alleged electoral fraud.

Legal challenge tomorrow
The official results will be announced at the party's national congress next weekend with Azmin set to assume the deputy president's post.

Anwar's daughter Nurul Izzah is leading the race for the vice-president's post. She is expected to be joined by party strategist Tian Chua, election director Fuziah Salleh and Penang PKR chairman Mansor Othman for the four available veep slots.

Incumbent Zuraida Kamaruddin also looks set to retain her Wanita chief's post while Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin is expected to brush aside a tough fight by challenger Badrul Hisham Shaharin for the Youth chief's post.

Before the party can officially announce its new batch of office bearers, it will have to overcome a legal challenge which is set to come before the courts tomorrow.

Former deputy secretary-general P Jenapala is seeking a court order to declare as invalid the election for the post of deputy president. He also applied for an injunction to prevent PKR from declaring any winning candidate to the post.

If the court rules in Jenapala's favour, the elections would have to be halted and held again, this time with Jenapala as one of the candidates.
FMT also learnt that a similar aplication could be filed by another member tomorrow.