FINALLY A SHRED OF JUSTICE FOR RAFIZI: AMID BLATANT EVIDENCE OF CHEATING & SABOTAGE, PKR SABAH TO HOLD RE-VOTING IN KENINGAU, PENSIANGAN & TAWAU – BUT ‘TAINTED’ ELECTION PANEL MUST STILL EXPLAIN THEIR SURPRISE RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT & VERBAL ATTACKS ON RAFIZI DURING 2-DAY FRACAS-FILLED VOTING PROCESS

THREE PKR branches in Sabah are set to conduct a revote for the party polls after being beset with problems during polling last weekend, its central election committee (JPP) head, Rashid Din, said.

He said the branches affected were Tawau, Keningau and Pensiangan.

“A revote is likely as the three branches had a lot of problems,” Rashid told The Malaysian Insight today. 

Results published by the JPP on Monday after the two-day voting process for Sabah showed incumbent deputy president Azmin Ali had won in Tawau and Keningau, while his rival Rafizi Ramli had won in Pensiangan.

Rashid said while the entire Keningau and Tawau branches will have to vote again, only those in Pensiangan who did not manage to vote last Sunday will be allowed to cast their ballots.

“Two branches will start the voting process early and in Pensiangan it will be an extension of the polling period. Our officers were slow in running the balloting process in Pensiangan the other day.”

RELATED STORY: PKR election committee complicit in Keningau ruckus, says Rafizi

Voting in Pensiangan on Sunday was disrupted for several hours after the Internet was disconnected, allegedly due to sabotage. Cut cables were discovered at the polling centre.

In Keningau, although voting was completed, the process was marred by a shouting match which saw Rafizi backed into a corner of the voting centre, which was held in a small community hall.

Rafizi later complained that the JPP had been unfair in allowing voting at an ill-equipped hall with poor Internet connection, causing party members to queue for hours.

Rashid said the JPP promised to ensure voting venues were bigger to accommodate crowds and equipped with strong Internet connection, as the PKR polls use an e-voting system.

However, he did not want to comment on the problems in Tawau.

Minus the votes from these three branches, Azmin is still in the lead with 3,006 votes ahead of Rafizi.

Sabah is the state with the second highest number of party members eligible to vote at 143,000.

Together with Selangor, the state with the most voters, both states hold about 47% of PKR members.

The Malaysian Insight has tallied the votes based on data from the JPP which show that Azmin now has 60,333 votes while Rafizi has 57,327 votes.

This excludes votes under dispute in some states that have yet to be resolved.

The last state to vote is Sarawak, which will do so on Saturday.

The next day, six branches in Malacca, and three more in other states – Jelebu in Negri Sembilan, Kuala Selangor in Selangor, and the Federal Territory of Labuan – will also hold a re-poll or extended voting period for those who haven’t voted.

All results must be tallied before the PKR annual congress to be held from November 16 to 18 in Shah Alam, where the party election results will be confirmed.

THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT