Forcing Umno polls a political ploy, not practical, says Shahril

 

Forcing an election now with the worsening Covid-19 situation will put a lot of people at risk as e-voting is not an option, Shahril Hamdan said.

PETALING JAYA: The Registrar of Societies’ (RoS) move to force Umno to have nationwide party elections amid the worsening Covid-19 situation smacks of politics, a party leader said today.

Speaking to FMT, Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan said this was especially so when the party fulfilled procedures for the extension of polls as indicated in the RoS’ letter to the party on July 19.

“Our secretary-general will write a formal letter to RoS to explain this,” he said.

Shahril added that RoS’ latest instructions were “peculiar” considering that the government body did not even allow PKR to hold its congress in June.

“Now, they want Umno to immediately hold nationwide polls across 20,000 branches? Other parties’ requests to postpone party polls were granted without any drama. Why not Umno’s?”

He said forcing Umno to carry out virtual voting without concerns for fraud and hacking was disingenuous.

“If there’s a ready way to do it, Malaysia would have already had a virtual general election to solve the current political impasse. But there isn’t.”

He said that as recently as July 2020, law minister Takiyuddin Hassan said the Election Commission was studying the viability of e-voting and listed reasons for why it was difficult.

“If after a year, the government – with all its resources – can’t come back to the rakyat about e-voting, how do you expect a political party to figure it out in a matter of weeks or months?

“It just doesn’t make practical sense, if you think about the safety of the people. It only makes sense if you see it as a ploy to meet certain political ends.”

Earlier today, the RoS ruled that Umno’s decision to postpone its party elections by up to 18 months was invalid and that it has to set a new date for the polls.

In a letter to Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan, RoS director-general Jasri Kasim said the postponement was not legitimate as the term for supreme council members elected in 2018 had ended on June 30.

On June 25, Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan said the party would be postponing its party elections for up to 18 months, according to its constitution.

He had told FMT this was due to the current Covid-19 situation after consulting the health ministry and National Security Council, adding that the party had informed the RoS.

In an earlier letter dated July 19, RoS had replied saying it had no problems with the postponement. However, it made an about-turn today. - FMT