KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 ― Rafizi Ramli today denied that his telephone survey to gauge PKR members’ views on his bid for the party's deputy presidency, is a violation of the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) 2010.

The phone survey was done via his analytics firm, Invoke.

“The calls were made using a system developed by Invoke two years ago.

“Phone number details were not taken from the PKR membership registry, but an internal Invoke database, which existed since 2016,” he said in a statement, adding that he has never been accused of violating laws by PKR or Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders before this.

“They were informed that the data we obtained, was via a petition, information from private marketing companies and a database built by over 40,000 Invoke volunteers,” he added.

News portal Malaysiakini today quoted PKR Selangor Communications chief Nor Hizwan Ahmad saying in a statement, that the telephone survey violated Section 6 of the PDPA.

“One cannot process the personal data of a subject, when the subject did not consent to processing such data, whereby the context here, being the usage of PKR members telephone numbers,” he reportedly said.

Nor Hizwan also expressed hope that aspiring candidates vying for party posts, contest for the positions ethically, in line with PKR's principle to uphold the rule of law.

In its report, Malaysiakini said that a number of PKR members received the survey via phone calls, to ask if they agreed to Rafizi's nomination for the post.

The news portal also attached a recording of the survey call which it had obtained, which reportedly required receivers to type in “1” or “2”, to register whether they agreed to the questions posed.

It said that checks with several PKR division leaders in several states, revealed that they were aware of the practise, though only a handful reportedly received the call.

In an exclusive interview with Malay Mail, Rafizi asserted that he is on par with incumbent Datuk Seri Azmin Ali in the race to be PKR deputy president based on a survey conducted by his analytics firm.

The founder of Invoke said it has polled between 7,000 and 8,000 PKR members so far this week and aimed to call between 40,000 and 50,000 members.

“It’s almost split 50-50, right in the middle,” Rafizi claimed to Malay Mail in an exclusive interview at Invoke’s office.

The former Pandan MP said that online registration to join the party required a valid phone number and sign-ups would be called or sent an SMS to verify their registration.

The other 40 per cent of new members registered en masse were brought in by “warlords” or grassroots campaigners, he said.