Fresh evidence point towards alleged irregularities in MIC's party polls last year.
PETALING JAYA: MIC president G Palanivel is once again dragged into controversy as fresh evidence emerged pointing towards alleged irregularities in MIC’s party polls held last year.
In the latest twist of events, a new set of documents has surfaced indicating that the election results could be declared null and void as the requirements of the party’s constitution were not met.
This is despite Palanivel confirming that the party’s central working committee (CWC) had accepted the results and that requests for a re-election would not be entertained.
It has been brought to FMT’s knowledge that during the CWC meeting last week, the election committee was shocked when the vice president M Saravanan alleged that the total number of delegates eligible to vote during the polls exceeded 1,500.
Saravanan had then produced a set of documents in the meeting to support his claims.
A CWC member forwarded the documents to FMT which showed that the total number of delegates during the election was 1,523, which is more than that allowed under the party’s constitution.
Articles 74.1 and 74.2 of the party constitution state that the total number of delegates entitled to attend the General Assembly shall not exceed 1,500 at any one time.
A party insider, who declined to be named, said that the party’s constitution allowed only 1,500 delegates to vote in order to elect their leadership.
“The breakdown of delegates for the election was as follows: 127 from national body which is, one party president, one deputy president, two vice presidents (as Dr S Subramaniam had been promoted to deputy president), 31 CWC members including nine appointed CWC members, 38 delegates each from Youth and Women wings and 16 delegates representing Puteri MIC,” he said, adding that the rest were ordinary delegates.
“Taking the election committee’s official number into account, the total number of ordinary delegates was 1,361. This does not include 35 delegates from Tanjung Malim and Kuala Selangor divisions who were not allowed to vote in the election after their division were suspended,” he added.
“By adding it, the number will increase to 1,398 and adding another 127 from national body, then the number would be 1,523, which clearly violates article 74.1 and 74.2 of the constitution,” he said.
He stressed that although the Puteri wing was not allowed to vote this time, the party must take the wings’ delegate numbers into account as it was a gazetted body in MIC.
“The party members are really shocked with the CWC’s decision to uphold the election results without investigating this allegation,” he said.
“However, we plan to bring this matter to the Registrar of Societies (ROS) for further investigations,” he added.
Another letter to ROS
Meanwhile, former MIC Puteri chief Usha Nandhini is the latest party leader to lodge a complaint against MIC to the ROS as her wing was stopped from running their election and electing 15 delegates to the MIC’s General Assembly that was held in Malacca on Nov 30 and Dec 1last year.
The complaint was lodged on Feb 4, alleging that the party’s leaders had violated the rights of Puteri MIC members.
This was the fourth report lodged with the ROS by MIC’s disgruntled party leaders.
Previously, MIC’s former treasurer-general Jaspal Singh and former Youth chiefs SA Vignesvaran and T Mohan had also lodged reports to the ROS, urging it to investigate the election irregularities.
PETALING JAYA: MIC president G Palanivel is once again dragged into controversy as fresh evidence emerged pointing towards alleged irregularities in MIC’s party polls held last year.In the latest twist of events, a new set of documents has surfaced indicating that the election results could be declared null and void as the requirements of the party’s constitution were not met.
This is despite Palanivel confirming that the party’s central working committee (CWC) had accepted the results and that requests for a re-election would not be entertained.
It has been brought to FMT’s knowledge that during the CWC meeting last week, the election committee was shocked when the vice president M Saravanan alleged that the total number of delegates eligible to vote during the polls exceeded 1,500.
Saravanan had then produced a set of documents in the meeting to support his claims.
A CWC member forwarded the documents to FMT which showed that the total number of delegates during the election was 1,523, which is more than that allowed under the party’s constitution.
Articles 74.1 and 74.2 of the party constitution state that the total number of delegates entitled to attend the General Assembly shall not exceed 1,500 at any one time.
A party insider, who declined to be named, said that the party’s constitution allowed only 1,500 delegates to vote in order to elect their leadership.
“The breakdown of delegates for the election was as follows: 127 from national body which is, one party president, one deputy president, two vice presidents (as Dr S Subramaniam had been promoted to deputy president), 31 CWC members including nine appointed CWC members, 38 delegates each from Youth and Women wings and 16 delegates representing Puteri MIC,” he said, adding that the rest were ordinary delegates.
“Taking the election committee’s official number into account, the total number of ordinary delegates was 1,361. This does not include 35 delegates from Tanjung Malim and Kuala Selangor divisions who were not allowed to vote in the election after their division were suspended,” he added.
“By adding it, the number will increase to 1,398 and adding another 127 from national body, then the number would be 1,523, which clearly violates article 74.1 and 74.2 of the constitution,” he said.
He stressed that although the Puteri wing was not allowed to vote this time, the party must take the wings’ delegate numbers into account as it was a gazetted body in MIC.
“The party members are really shocked with the CWC’s decision to uphold the election results without investigating this allegation,” he said.
“However, we plan to bring this matter to the Registrar of Societies (ROS) for further investigations,” he added.
Another letter to ROS
Meanwhile, former MIC Puteri chief Usha Nandhini is the latest party leader to lodge a complaint against MIC to the ROS as her wing was stopped from running their election and electing 15 delegates to the MIC’s General Assembly that was held in Malacca on Nov 30 and Dec 1last year.
The complaint was lodged on Feb 4, alleging that the party’s leaders had violated the rights of Puteri MIC members.
This was the fourth report lodged with the ROS by MIC’s disgruntled party leaders.
Previously, MIC’s former treasurer-general Jaspal Singh and former Youth chiefs SA Vignesvaran and T Mohan had also lodged reports to the ROS, urging it to investigate the election irregularities.
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