PETALING JAYA, May 28 — Reported incidents of violence over the course of PKR’s recent party elections may have been orchestrated by gangsters, the party’s central elections committee (JPP) claimed today.
JPP chairman Datuk Johari Abdul said the evidence collected so far point to the likelihood that outsiders were brought in to sabotage the polling process in at least two branches.
“It looks like it was organised. We have witnesses who said they saw groups turning up at around 4.15pm and just waiting outside the polling centre,” he said at a press conference on ongoing party polls.
“The moment voting ended, they immediately barged in but they did not thrash the toilet, or the tables or the party workers. They went straight for the ballot boxes,” Johari said,confirming that the incidents happened in the Kota Raja and Kuala Langat branches.
Johari said that the party would prefer to complete its own investigations before involving the police.
He could not say conclusively that the culprits were outsiders.
“Until we can confirm that these are outsiders, we will not lodge a police report,” he said, adding that they will consider lodging a police report against party members if they are found to have been involved.
Johari said the incidents could be part of a larger agenda to sabotage the party polls, though he could not say why anyone would want to do that.
“This may be some kind of scheme to sabotage the process... maybe it is sponsored by a party or created for whatever reasons unknown to us.
“Maybe this group was well trained to kick the (ballot) boxes since that was their sole target. It looked like they were wearing uniforms, but then again gangsters don’t usually wear uniforms... we’ll get somewhere (in our investigations) and soon,” he said.
The Sungai Petani MP urged any party member or the public with access to footage or any evidence related to the alleged sabotage incidents to share it with the JPP to help speed up investigations.
PKR disciplinary committee chairman Abdul Malek Hussein, who chairs the panel, said he expects to complete the hearing process by next week.
The party, meanwhile, will continue with the re-election process in 35 branches where results were deemed void due to various circumstances, starting with 10 branches in the north and east coast regions.
Members in the Setiu, Kuala Nerus, Kemaman, Dungun, Jerantut, Paya Besar, Pasir Puteh and Pengerang will cast their ballots on May 31 while the Tenggara and Sungai Petani branch members will vote on June 1.
Johari said the dates for the remaining 25 branches will be announced next week once they are done with this weekend’s re-election.
He was earlier reported to have said that the JPP decided on holding re-elections at the 35 branches amid growing protests by party members over alleged improprieties in the polling process and altercations that party leaders claimed were started by outsiders.
At least 15 members have since been sacked following the altercations, along with over 10 members suspended pending the completion of investigations on alleged violations of party polls regulations.
This is the second party polls using a direct voting system involving half a million members nationwide.
It was first introduced during PKR’s last 2010 polls, which was fraught with allegations of corruption and voter manipulation.
