E-voting in Kedah and Penang was hit by technical problems on Saturday (Sept 22).
PETALING JAYA: The PKR polls in Kedah will be postponed until further notice, said party president-elect Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“We have received a detailed report by the JPP (PKR central election committee) and we have decided to postpone the polls in Kedah... there were some weaknesses in Kedah and the technician must settle this,” he said.
Anwar was speaking to reporters after chairing a political bureau meeting at PKR’s headquarters in Merchant Square on Tuesday (Sept 25).
According to Anwar, this was due to several technical issues that needed to be addressed by the JPP.
The PKR polls, which kicked off on Sept 22, was the party’s first time utilising the e-voting system.
Unfortunately, a technical glitch resulted in chaos during the polls as with a ruckus between party members broke out in Penang and in Kedah.
On Sept 23, JPP said that the Perlis and Perak polls will be postponed until the JPP is able to resolve technical problems relating to the polls.
Incumbent party vice-president Dr Xavier Jayakumar claimed on Monday (Sept 24) that the ruckus was caused by a glitch in the e-voting system.
However, Anwar said that the party polling results for Penang will be accepted following a detailed audit conducted by the JPP.
“For Penang, there were some flaws (found) by the JPP in its audit. There are some votes which are doubtful, whether he/she is a member or not, but that will be determined by the audit with JPP.
“Generally, the votes reflect the total number of votes cast. But then there are differences, for example in Permatang Pauh, Penang, we found that there were some missing votes, which was decided by an independent audit in the presence of the candidates.”
Anwar also urged all party leaders to forward their opinions on the party polls as soon as possible to the JPP.
“All decisions are made in consensus by the party’s central leadership,” he added.
JPP chairman Datuk Rashid Din, who was present during the press conference, said that PKR hasn’t decided when the party polls in Kedah would resume.
“We have to wait and look at our logistics. We have to finish this (polls) by early November, so it will be somewhere from now until early November.”
The PKR polls, which saw Anwar win uncontested as party president, is seeing an intense battle for deputy presidency between incumbent Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali and Rafizi Ramli.
Win a prize this Mother's Day by subscribing to our annual plan now! T&C applies.
