'DAP members voted in PKR polls'

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 06:00

By Joseph Tawie

KUCHING: The controversies surrounding the PKR divisional elections nationwide continued to pile up, with the latest allegation being DAP members having voted in the Sri Aman division contest.

In last week's contest, Jimmy Donald was elected chairman after edging his opponent Ibi Anak Uding by a mere eight votes. Donald got 84 votes, Ibi 76 and the third candidate Cobbold John Lusoi managed to get only 10 votes.

However, Ibi claimed that her supporters had detected irregularities.

“We found that eight voters who cast their votes for Donald are DAP members. Not only that, they are also DAP Sri Aman division committee members. This is the ‘father and son’ strategy,” Ibi said, referring to Donald's son, Leon, who is a DAP member.

“When PKR is having its election, they claim to be PKR members and take part in the election. And likewise when DAP has its election, they say they are DAP members,” she added.

Ibi, who is the Sarawak PKR Wanita chief, said her supporters were collecting more information on those who could have dual party memberships.

'Disqualification a blow for Azmin'

Meanwhile, state PKR information chief See Chee How said the party election committee could declare Donald's election null and void if there was basis to the allegation.

If Donald was disqualified, party sources said it would render a blow to vice-president Azmin Ali's bid for deputy presidency as the former is a stauch supporter of Azmin.

The division was also expected to be hit by resignations as those elected had refused to work with Donald. Ten out of the 15 elected members are aligned to Ibi.

Ibi said that she had informed the state PKR headquarters and party election committee in Kuala Lumpur about the irregularities.

Contacted later, PKR deputy secretary-general Paul Kadang said that the headquarters was aware of the matter and was looking through it.

This was the first report of alleged irregularities in PKR elections in the state. So far, 13 divisions had elected their representatives and committee members.

Starting today, another 16 divisions would elect their chairmen and committee members.

According to sources, winning the chairmanship of each division was akin to coming one-step closer to being selected as candidates for the coming state election.