Anwar wants to uphold democratic principles by holding party polls soon

 

PKR president Anwar Ibrahim said he insisted his party’s election be held as soon as possible despite suggestions to postpone it as he wants the party to uphold democratic principles.

He said this today while launching the ‘Adil’ mobile application, which will allow PKR members to register and vote online in the forthcoming PKR party election.

“Many people suggested quite strongly for us to postpone our election because we still can (according to the party constitution), and it is the tendency for the leadership of the big parties to choose to postpone. But I am of a different opinion.

“We were chosen in 2018 with a clear mandate for a certain number of years. The party constitution and the Registrar of Societies (RoS) allow us to postpone if there are reasons, such as the state of emergency or a general election. That did not happen.

“So I am quite firm that if this party wants to defend the principles of democracy and respect the mandate of the rakyat and its members, then we should immediately carry it out as soon as possible,” Anwar said during the launch of the ‘Adil’ application at the PKR headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

‘Several key positions have been vacant’

Another reason why the party election needs to be held as soon as possible, he said, is because several key positions have been vacant since the Sheraton Move.

Those positions need to be filled as soon as possible, he said, adding that he did not want to personally appoint people into those vacancies as the members should be the ones to choose.

Anwar said they have also learned their lesson from the previous party election, which saw many complaints and issues with the process despite their best efforts at the time.

That is why they eventually came up with a new system for the party election this time, which is a hybrid method.

The hybrid method will include online voting, which the ‘Adil’ application will serve as a platform for, as well as physical voting at polling stations.

Anwar added that they did not make the full shift to online voting because there are still many out there who do not have stable access to the Internet or have difficulties adapting to new technology.

The PKR election for office bearers for the term 2022 to 2025 will be held from May 13 to 18. - Mkini