Team Azmin likely to dominate PKR leadership

PKR POLLS | PKR deputy presidential candidate Mohamed Azmin Ali will enter the last week of the PKR elections in a comfortable position but many of his allies already have larger and unassailable leads, making their positions almost secured.

After the PKR elections committee released the interim results for Sabah last night, Azmin's national tally now stands at 59,594 votes to his challenger Rafizi Ramli's 56,392 votes - a 3,172-vote lead.

Azmin's allies, meanwhile, have far larger leads.

For example, in the vice-presidential race in which four positions are available, Zuraida Kamaruddin (below) has a tally of 52,226 votes, Xavier Jayakumar has 47,566 votes and Tian Chua has 42,608 votes.

The only candidate who is not aligned with Azmin but who is in the top four is Nurul Izzah Anwar with 67,050 votes.

In fifth place is Shamsul Iskandar with 41,008 votes and who is also an Azmin ally.

Rafizi's allies are Johari Abdul (37,720 votes), William Leong (36,136 votes) and S Kesavan (34,406).

That means for another Rafizi ally to enter the top four - Johari is the closest - he would need to make up a deficit of 4,888 votes.

The gap is similarly huge in the PKR Wanita chief and deputy chief contest as well as the PKR Youth deputy chief's race.

In the PKR Wanita chief's race, Haniza Talha has 24,179 votes over Rafizi ally Fuziah Salleh who has 19,662 votes - a 4,517-vote lead.

In the PKR Wanita deputy chief's contest, Azmin's ally Daroyah Alwi has 23,599 votes to Rodziah Ismail's 18,006 votes - a 5,593-vote lead.

Likewise, in the PKR Youth deputy chief's race, Azmin's political secretary Hilman Idham has 16,951 votes to Rafizi's ally Raymond Ahuar's 8,440 votes - an 8,511-vote lead. A third candidate, Naquiddin Nazrin, has 2,712 votes.

The closest fight is in the PKR Youth chief's race where Azmin's ally Afif Bahardin has14,000 votes to Rafizi's protege Akmal Nasir who has 13,169 votes, an 831 vote difference. A third candidate, Najwan Halimi, has 2,982 votes.

For the PKR central leadership council where 20 positions are available, Azmin's allies now control 15 of these places. Another five are Rafizi's allies.

Rafizi and his allies will need to win huge majorities next week in order to cover their vote deficit.

Delayed elections

For the record, after 12 states including the federal territories went to the polls, no single state except Selangor has provided a majority of more than 3,000 votes to a single deputy presidential candidate.

Selangor, which has the largest PKR membership at 31 percent, gave Azmin a 3,408-vote majority. The next largest majority was from Perak, comprising seven percent of the total PKR membership and which gave a Rafizi a 2,244-vote majority.

Next week, PKR members in Sarawak are set to vote while there will also be an election in Malacca whose polls were postponed.

Sarawak makes up almost six percent of the PKR membership while Malacca makes up three percent.

The divisions of Kuala Selangor, Labuan and Jelebu are also set to vote.

The status of Pensiangan, Keningau and Tawau in Sabah remains unclear as the PKR election committee announced the state's results without those three divisions.

For detailed results, check out Malaysiakini's PKR election tracker which has been updated today.

-Mkini