In Malaysia, it is not uncommon for political parties to experience a significant increase in membership during the years when internal elections are held.
The modus operandi usually entails expanding branches in order to increase the voting base that will choose the division leadership.
For PKR, which will be holding division and national-level elections beginning this weekend, its membership numbers have swelled tremendously, mostly in the month of June.
In July, PKR secretary-general’s Saifuddin Nasution briefed party members in Kuala Lumpur that 766,534 party members were eligible to vote.
During that same presentation, he pointed out that 221,019 (40.52 percent) joined the party between June 6 and 25. This translates to a phenomenal 11,050 new recruits daily on average, over a 20-day period.
During that period, Selangor PKR secured the largest number of new recruits, at 62,837, representing a 35.33 percent increase. This is followed by Sabah PKR, which recruited 39,319 new members, or an increase of 40.74 percent.
The Negeri Sembilan and Malacca chapters of PKR doubled their membership in those 20 days. Johor PKR's membership rose 81.5 percent during that period while Terengganu PKR's membership rose by 62 percent.
PKR is the only political party in Malaysia which has adopted a one-person-one-vote system for the election of its central leadership. It was instituted in 2010 as a democratisation bid.
But the sudden 40 percent expansion in the voter base had caught some candidates off guard.
Several PKR division leaders told Malaysiakini that although they expected an uptick in party membership, they did not expect these new members who are unfamiliar with party practices and history, to be allowed to vote.
“They may not understand the contributions of older and perhaps less visible party leaders who are offering themselves as candidates, nor the struggle that they went through,” said one source.
Some division leaders told Malaysiakini that the cut-off date for eligible voters should have been set right before the sudden influx of new members to prevent efforts at disrupting or subverting the election process, for example, through hostile takeovers by former members of PKR’s rivals.
Vetting of new members promised
When contacted, PKR elections committee deputy chairperson Adzman Hedra assured that members are subjected to a strict vetting process, which was finalised on Sept 15.
Among other criteria, he said the committee would be checking for former ranking members of another party who joined PKR recently and whether there were objections against their eligibility.
"We also found that some members are registered to two branches. We also found cases of wrong MyKad numbers in members' registration, or that the MyKad state code listed in their registrations does not exist.
“So in these cases, we set them aside," he said, adding that such cases were likely due to human error during the digitisation process of the membership list.
Adzman explained that the party was able to accommodate the huge number of new members in a short period of time after the party had put in place an online registration system.
"The political bureau has discussed this and they want new members to vote to menyuburkan (nourish) the practice of democracy in PKR.
“We’ve been promoting our party for the past 20 years and now that we’re in power, people are flocking to join us. We should not stop them.
“We still have to scrutinise who joins our party. Those who were former leaders or election candidates for other parties, such as Umno, will be subject to more stringent checks compared to regular party members,” he said.
New members can run
Apart from being able to vote, some new party members are even allowed to be a candidate for party positions, from the division level right up to the central leadership council.
The party’s election rules stipulate that all candidates must have been a party member for at least 12 months to qualify for the election, although this rule can be waived by the party president on a case-by-case basis.
Malaysiakini has sighted a letter to party members from PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail which stated that those seeking exemptions must file their applications by noon, Aug 1.
Julau MP Larry Sng Wei Shien was one such waiver recipient. Sng won the Julau parliamentary seat as an independent candidate and subsequently joined PKR on May 11.
According to the official website for the PKR elections, Sng is both a candidate for the PKR central leadership council and the Julau PKR division leadership.
Again, Adzman said that the election committee was “very strict” in the vetting of new members who offer themselves as candidates.
He revealed that there were 14,000 candidates in total, of which 3,000 or 20 percent were made up of new members and that they had received the same waiver.
"We are very strict. (New members) who applied to be candidates but do not have a consent letter from the party president would be automatically dropped.
"PKR members who contested in the last general election as independent candidates, and those who contested the Umno Youth chief post, for example, all these were also taken off the list,” he said.
He added that PKR members can file objections against candidates to strike off candidates who do not meet requirements.
The party’s election website does list 306 objections with no indication of how many were actually disqualified as result.
Who designed the e-voting system?
This election will also witness PKR charting a first by introducing an electronic voting system. Malaysiakini has previously detailed how the system works.
A refrain amongst PKR division heads interviewed by Malaysiak
On Aug 9, Saifuddin told Malaysiakini that the party leadership and the elections committee had been briefed on the credibility of the e-voting system and the auditor.
He said any decision on whether to reveal the name of the system’s developer and auditor lies with the elections committee.
Adzman told Malaysiakini that the system was in fact designed internally and not by an outsourced tech company as rumoured. He said that the developers were a group of seven youths aged 25 to 32 and guided by the committee.
“We recruited a team of youngsters to develop it. They didn’t really understand what we needed, so we had to combine ideas.
“From this, the e-voting system was born. This system does not use an app, web or server. We are using Google private cloud. (We’re) renting from Google.
“So there is no issue of security because if Google Cloud can be hacked, then Google would be out of business,” he said.
He also revealed that the elections committee had engaged Baker Tilly Malaysia as the elections auditor for a five-figure fee.
Baker Tilly – which is among the Top 10 biggest accounting firms in the world – will be performing auditing work before, during and after the elections. Adzman said that if all goes well, the e-voting system will be ISO-9002 certified.
“Our aim is to have our system to be verified as a viable system and to get the ISO verification. With the ISO certification, there would not be any question,” he said.
Factional wars
The division leaders interviewed by Malaysiakini sa
“The moment you speak up, people will see you as someone from this-or-that camp instead of listening to the merits of your argument.
“So we can only depend on our representatives to raise our complaints to the biropol (political bureau),” said a division chief.
One national PKR leader told Malaysiakini that his team were already confident of their support among members who joined before the May 9 elections and were now focussing on reaching out to the 221,019 new members.
“It’s better to get on with the campaign than to complain,” said the leader.
Voting will be held from Sept 22 until Oct 28 and will take place on weekends. All states would require only one day for voting except for Selangor and Sabah, due to their large voter base. -Mkini
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