BUTTERWORTH: PKR’s party elections in Perlis, Perak, Negri Sembilan and Melaka have been postponed following complications in the voting process in Penang and Kedah on Saturday.
Polling in Perak and Perlis was supposed to take place today.
“The elections for Perak and Perlis scheduled (for Sunday) are postponed. JPP will set new dates for all divisions in the states concerned,” PKR Party Election Committee (JPP) secretary Ismail Yusop said at a press conference last night.
He said polling in Negri Sembilan and Melaka will now be held on the same day as Johor, on Sept 30.
Elections in Kedah, which were marred by fighting in several divisions, were eventually cancelled and will be re-run at a later date.
In contrast, the voting process in Penang was relatively smooth, with polling results accepted without any amendments, Ismail said.
Fiasco in Kedah
“The reports received by JPP from field personnel (in Kedah) were very disappointing. There were many unexpected incidents… leaving JPP with no choice but to postpone elections in nine divisions in Kedah.
“At the same time, the JPP operations room also received several complaints on the voting process in Penang,” he said.
Ismail added that a lack of technical support for personnel handling e-voting at polling centres in the two states hampered the process, and led to confusion and frustration among members.
“The large turnout also impeded the smooth verification process of members registered to vote,” he added.
The PKR 2018 elections kicked off yesterday in Kedah and Penang, where 105,056 members were eligible to vote at 28 branches to select the central and branch leaderships.
Meanwhile, in Ipoh, Perak PKR chairman Dr Muhammad Nur Manuty said the state chapter hopes the manual rather than e-voting system will be used there.
“E-voting is (not user-friendly), especially for older people, because some of them are not technologically savvy.
“We practise the democratic principle of ‘one member one vote,’ but when the elderly are not IT savvy, their rights are denied,” he added.