MIC AGM kicks off

The all important MIC annual general assembly kicked off in the Malacca this morning with results of party internal elections expected later in the evening.

MALACCA: The 67th MIC annual general assembly kicked off in this historical city with results of the internal polls to pick three vice presidents and 23 central working committee members expected to be out later part of the evening.

The assembly this morning saw party secretary general giving his opening speech, welcoming all the delegates and wishing the vice-president and central working committee (CWC) candidates best luck.

This was followed by MIC treasure general Jaspal Singh tabling the MIC annual accounts.

The 1,452 delegates who were eligible to vote at the polls have began casting their ballots.

Party officials speaking to FMT said the voting process is expected to take four to five hours.

“Counting of the votes will be the hard part with so many candidates. We will start with the central working committee first and only then the vice-president ballots,” an official said.

Eight candidates are vying for the three vice-presidents post while a whopping 88 candidates will fight it out for the 23 central working committee seats.

Campaigning was in full swing at the presidential dinner last night for the delegates and this morning with candidates making their pitch on why they should be elected.

A total of 1452 delegates will be eligible to vote in the polls, comprising 1,341 division delegates, 41 CWC delegates, 38 Youth delegates and 38 Wanita wing delegates.

KP Samy trashes Tamil Nesan

Meanwhile, central working committee candidate KP Samy had a tiff with former CWC member Vell Paari, who is also son of former president S Samy Vellu, for dumping Tamil Nesan newspapers, a Tamil vernacular daily, into the trash bin.

The incident occured at about 7am, today, when the paper was being distributed free to all delegates attending the assembly in front of the Equatorial Hotel.

Samy was unhappy with allegations, by the newspaper, that he used caste politics to gain votes at the polls.

Samy, who was unhappy seeing the paper distributed for free, took three bundles of the newspaper and dumped into a nearby garbage bin.

This incident irked Paari, who is also the newspaper’s managing director. There was a verbal clash between the two leaders at the lobby of the hotel.

“If he (Samy) did not agree with the report, then he should sue us. What right does he have to throw the papers away?,” Paari told FMT when asked later about the incident.

The voting process is still on-going and media have been barred from recording the voting process.