PKR election committee being unfair to voting members - Rafizi

PKR POLLS | Incumbent PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli has lashed out at the party's central election committee over three decisions it announced today, including not conducting a re-election for the Julau division.

In a statement, Rafizi said the committee's decision to stick to Saturday's results from Julau was "unfair" to him and his camp, claiming that it would hamper his bid to become PKR's deputy president.

"When the data problem at Pensiangan division was solved, it was expected that I would only fall behind (deputy presidential contender) Azmin Ali by around 2,000 votes.

"A re-election in Julau division – because the polling (on Saturday) had lost its credence when tablets used were hacked – would give me an overall advantage if the turnout exceeds 2,000 voters.

"I know that the committee was pushed (didesak) to not go ahead with a re-election, albeit having admitted that the e-voting system in Julau was hacked and tablets used tampered with," his statement read.

After results for the division were suspended on Saturday due to an apparent "cyber attack," Rafizi had claimed that some of the tablets used for e-voting system had been compromised with malware.

This morning, the election committee announced that no re-election would be held for Julau, saying that no data or votes were found to be compromised.

Read more: No re-election in Julau, says PKR elections committee

Election committee chief Rashid Din confirmed, however, that six tablets from the voting centre had their e-voting application “wiped clean” by the Prey anti-theft application.

'100 percent contradictory'

In his statement, Rafizi lambasted the committee for its "illogical" stance on the alleged hacking.

"This statement by the committee is 100 percent in contradiction of statements it had issued before this," he insisted.

The election committee announced two other decisions today, namely that the re-election results for the Tawau and Pensiangan divisions have been accepted, and that undi ragu (disputed votes) would only be counted for divisional races with closely tied results.

However, Rafizi said that these decisions effectively "victimised" the hundreds of thousands of PKR members around the country who voted in the party election, given that the problems occurred due to the committee's own weaknesses.

He also called upon PKR's political bureau, which is scheduled to meet tonight, to make decisions on several issues. 

This, he said, includes solving the issue of lost voting data, especially for the Pensiangan division, and the committee rejecting undi ragu for non-divisional races.

"If the committee's excuse is that undi ragu would only be used in divisions with small margins in the results, what about the results for the deputy president and central leadership council races, with a margin of about one percent?"

Rafizi also urged PKR to take stern action against the election committee's IT Unit chief Alvin Teoh for allegedly being negligent in his duties, which he said led to the PKR e-voting system malfunctioning.

He also called for JPP to apologise to all party members for its weaknesses in handling the election. - Mkini