Non-delegate voted in MIC polls?

Allegations of misappropriation continues to besiege the just concluded MIC elections.

PETALING JAYA: The MIC election saga continued today with fresh allegation that a former Youth leader was allowed to cast his ballot at the polls although he was not a delegate

A party source today confirmed that MIC former Youth central working committee member VP Shanmugam voted in the polls, held to pick three vice presidents and 23 central working committee members in Malacca on Nov 30, despite not being a delegate at the election.

Speaking to FMT, the party source claimed Shanmugam’s name was initially not in the delegates list, but “was added just an hour before polling following instructions from MIC president G Palanivel.”

“Total delegates in the MIC annual general assembly was 1,452. But, the number changed in the last minute to 1,453 without any proper process,” said the source.

Shanmugam was elected as the Youth central working committee member in 2009 along with G Kumar Amman.

Both of them were replaced by M Saravanan and P Tharma Kumaran at the Youth polls, held on Nov 16, 2013.

“Kumar Amman was eligible to vote in the election as he was an elected delegate of a division.

“But, Shanmugam is not a delegate from the Youth or any division. The question now is who gave the president the power to decide if Shanmugam could vote or otherwise. This is against the MIC constitution and Shanmugam’s vote is like a phantom voter,” the source said.

“The Election committee can’t say Shanmugam was a Youth delegate as he was already succeeded by Saravanan and Tharma Kumaran, who also voted in the polls,” he added.

A MIC election committee member when contacted confirmed that Shanmugan indeed voted on the instructions of Palanivel.

Both Shanmugam and Kumar Amman also contested for CWC posts.

“Taking the election result into account, one vote means a lot. Three candidates were tied to clinch the 23rd spot in the CWC contest while one candidate had only one vote extra from the cut-off. So Shanmugam’s vote could have made a world of difference to these candidates,” he added.

The MIC polls this time around was marred with allegations of fraudulent votes being cast. After a week since the election, the party leadership is still mum on the allegations.

Palanivel has yet to appoint the new secretary general, treasurer general and the party information chief. He is also yet to announce who he will appoint into the party’s all powerful central working committee.

The party constitution allows for the president to appoint members to the CWC apart from the 23 elected members.