PETALING JAYA, Jan 8 — Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia has directed its branches and divisions to conduct their annual general meetings between January 25 and March 3.
Bersatu secretary-general Datuk Marzuki Yahya made the announcement today after chairing a meeting at the party headquarters in Menara Yayasan Selangor today.
“All PPBM branches must have their AGMs to pick the party leaders beginning January 25 all the way till March 3 with nominations open on January 13 from 9am to 5pm.
“It will be branches voting first based on popular vote with members raising hands to pick their candidate and once the branches have done their voting, we will proceed to the elections for the division chiefs,” Marzuki explained.
Marzuki, who is also the deputy foreign minister, said Bersatu has 377,057 members from 2,946 branches and 194 divisions nationwide.
He said the meeting today attended by around 50 leaders was to announce the election period, distribute nomination and voting papers, and for members to provide feedback or express concerns.
The meeting was chaired by Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, who is Bersatu’s election committee chairman.
Syed Hamid told reporters that the voting for branch chiefs will be by a show of hands and counted by coordinators.
“Once the branch members have voted and we have the winners, the division elections will be done, and this will be by secret ballot.
“We will have around 70 people to help with the election process and will streamline the election processes across the board,” said Syed Hamid.
“What we want is for a democratic, smooth election process where all our members are content.”
Syed Hamid said results of the voting will be announced as soon as they are tallied to avoid allegations of bias and fraud.
“We are trying to follow the Election Commission’s model,” said Syed Hamid.
“We don’t want people to say we added votes or changed votes. Because even in general elections, it happens so we do not want the same thing here.
“If we keep anything, there will be all kinds of allegations,” he added.
Once all the lower level elections are done, on April 4, 2020, Bersatu will have elections for its supreme council.
