KUCHING, Nov 10 — The Sarawak Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) election process went smoothly this morning with state PKR chairman and Selangau Member of Parliament Baru Bian winning the PKR Lawas division’s top post uncontested.

In Lawas, Baru, who is also Works Minister and Ba’Kelalan State Assemblyman, arrived at the polling centre at the Lawas Closed Stadium at 9.05am and voted via e-voting at 9.25am.

Meanwhile, in Julau, heavy rain did not prevent thousands of PKR members from turning up to vote in the polling for the Julau division at the Julau Sports Complex as early as 6am especially those who were far away from Pakan town.

The majority of the voters present wore the yellow shirt depicting the face of the candidate for the division chief’s post Larry Sng Wei Shien, who was contesting against incumbent Semana Sawang, and deputy presidential candidate Rafizi Ramli.

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The election for the Julau division drew attention when it said there were irregularities in terms of the number of membership which rose sharply from just 603 on June 26 to 13,000 a day later.

Meanwhile, the PKR Kota Samarahan division election, involving 2,000 registered members, at the Kota Samarahan Industrial Training Institute (ILP) proceeded smoothly when the polling centre opened at 9am.

PKR Central Leadership Council (MPP) candidate, R. Rivarasa and Penang PKR chairman Datuk Mansor Othman visited the voting centre.

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For the Mas Gading division, which had 1,247 eligible voters, the polling process in Kampung Stenggang, Bau near here went smoothly without any incident this morning.

However, some hiccups were encountered at the Petra Jaya division here when some of the 1,526 members turning up to vote were told at the last minute the process was postponed to tomorrow.

Speaking to reporters, the candidate for the Petra Jaya PKR division top post Iswardy Morni alleged there were ‘acts of sabotage’ following the last-minute directive by the state PKR election committee, led by Baharuddin Moksen, who is defending the division chief’s post.

Iswardy is expected to lodge a police report on the matter this afternoon. — Bernama