KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 — MIC presidential aspirant Datuk M. Muthupalaniappan today claimed that certain quarters in the party were using threats and underhand tactics to ensure that he did not obtain the 50 nominations needed to contest the MIC top post.
He said some leaders in the party were threatening the branch chairmen not to nominate him for the top post or their branches would face closure for various reasons.
“All sorts of threats are being used. These underhand tactics are to ensure that I do not receive enough number of nominations to fight for the president’s post. If the election is not fair, then there is no point in contesting,” he told Bernama.
Muthupalaniappan late last year announced his intention to contest the party top post. He will face incumbent president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, who had also announced that he would defend the post. The MIC chief has been at the helm of the largest Indian-based political party since 1979.
Under the party constitution, a presidential aspirant needs to obtain 50 nominations, and each nomination must have one proposer and five seconders, to be eligible to contest. All proposers and seconders must be branch chairmen.
The MIC president will be picked by some 3,700 branch chairmen nationwide. The party has fixed March 22 for the presidential nomination while polling is slated for April 12.
Quashing speculation that he would pull out of the contest, Muthupalaniappan said: “There is a lot of speculation that I will not stand but I will and shall contest.”
“They are trying to stop me by stopping people from nominating me,” he said, without disclosing any names.
“There is no level playing field. They have postponed the annual general meetings of some branches that supported me, especially in Negeri Sembilan, so that my supporters would be ineligible to vote.
“But there are branch leaders who are signing nominations for me...although many are scared of repercussions from the powers that be,” Muthupalaniappan
said.
The 68-year-old leader from Seremban hoped that the branch leaders would act according to the aspirations of the 600,000 MIC members and the community, which wanted to see change in the MIC top leadership. He also claimed that some MIC division leaders and state chairmen, who were supposed to be returning officers in the presidential elections, were involved in campaigning.
“Under the party constitution, division leaders and state chairmen are returning officers of the presidential election. If they are returning officers, they should not be allowed to campaign in the election. It is like the Election Commission campaigning in an election. That is wrong,” he added. — Bernama
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