PETALING JAYA, Oct 29 — It is not enough for incoming PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to show concern over his party’s botched elections; he must rise above the petty bickering and allow the democratic process to continue.
PKR’s internal elections have been wracked by chaos over allegations of vote-buying among its 800,000-odd members, resulting in even police reports made.
Complaints of technical glitches over the e-voting process — the first time PKR is using this method to elect its leaders — have also created doubt over the authenticity of the one member, one vote policy.
What makes matters worse is that PKR is now the central component of the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition that defeated the Barisan Nasional.
Contest for all leadership posts has been tense, but none has not attracted as much public attention and contention as the fight for the post of deputy president where the incumbent Datuk Seri Azmin Ali is facing stiff challenge from vice-president Rafizi Ramli. Both have been neck to neck in the race so far.
One week, Azmin is ahead by a few hundred votes and in another, Rafizi is in the lead, also by another few hundred.
Rafizi’s campaign has been one sustaining the “reformasi” struggle and reform of the government while Azmin goes beyond reforming the government to improve the national economy.
While both contestants share similar concerns, their approach has been vastly different, and it is debatable which is better.
Their contest has been intense and has split PKR into two camps, which at the moment looks unlikely to end with the current party election but will be carried forward into the next one three years from now.
The tension for the deputy presidency can be traced to Anwar’s unchallenged path to be its president, which puts him a step closer to being endorsed the coalition’s next prime minister to succeed Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
As such, those near Anwar but feel they should be within the inner decision-making circle in the party and the coalition cannot help but chase after their prize.
It is not just a position where the winner will gain recognition and accolade but also be seen as the conduit between the boss and the leaders when the former has no time to attend to party matters.
Rafizi gained the edge with his “Port Dickson Move” to put Anwar back in Parliament which Azmin appeared to have lost.
While who will take PKR’s deputy presidency will only be known on November 18, one thing is certain; the loser may not have any place in the party leadership after the bloody battle dividing the party.
In the meantime, Anwar has been keeping close watch and has not been seen to take sides. As far as he is concerned, the winner of the deputy presidency will have to take orders from him rather than be an equal partner on running PKR.
