PKR's reformist claim on thin ice, warns Ambiga

PKR POLLS | PKR will soon lose the moral high ground to call themselves reformists, according to former Bersih chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan.

"At the very least they need to believe in clean and fair elections to be reformists. They did. Some years ago when they helped start the Bersih movement," she said in a Twitter posting this afternoon.

Ambiga said PKR should not assume that the majority of Malaysians cannot see what is happening in their elections.

"After all they saw through the shenanigans of the last government and threw them out. Thirteen thousand increase in members in one day? Really?" she added.

Ambiga was referring to allegations that 13,000 people were added into the Julau PKR division membership records in June, ahead of the cutoff date for new members to enjoy voting rights.

A significant number of these "new members" have lodged police reports claiming that they were added to the Julau PKR membership list without their consent.

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution, however, has clarifiedthat the 13,000 names were submitted by Julau MP Larry Sng, who joined the party on May 11, and was affirmed by the party's leadership.

Eventually, the Julau leg of the elections was suspended after an alleged "malware" attack on tablet computers used for the e-voting process.

Although the PKR elections committee (JPP) has yet to decide on possible re-election for Julau, those aligned to Azmin Ali's camp have already declared victory.

However, outgoing PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has stressed that the election has yet to be fully completed.

Apart from the Julau controversy, the PKR election has also been marred by violence, allegations of vote buying and problems with the e-voting system. - Mkini