Johor Umno polls panel probes glitch

JOHOR BARU: The Johor Umno election committee has called up representatives of the two candidates contesting in the party’s Gelang Patah Youth division chief post as it continues investigations into the “technical glitch” that had occurred during the wing’s election last Saturday.

Its chairman Abd Rahman Sabri said the committee had met with the representative to find out what had happened during the polls.

“The state committee concluded that the number of registered delegates and the number of votes received by candidates did not tally,” he said yesterday.

According to Rahman, the findings have been forwarded to the party headquarters, which would make a decision on whether to have an re-election.

The Gelang Patah divisional youth contest saw a straight fight between division committee member Abdul Hamid Soaip and Kampung Laut Batu 10 branch youth chief Julnizam Jani­zan.

Initially, the results were in favour of Jul­nizam but it could not be announced as the polls were suspended due to the “technical glitch”.

Meanwhile, a group from the Johor Baru Umno Youth are calling for a re-election for the divisional wing’s posts, claiming that standard operating procedures were not followed.

The group comprised supporters of two candidates for the Johor Baru Youth division chief post – Nornekman Osman and Musbah Yusof – who both lost to Syaful Rizal Abdul Ghani in the election.

Mohd Syirazi Kamaludin, who filed a protest note of behalf of Nornikman, said they were unhappy with the way the elections were carried out.

“The delegates were not given the opportunity to vote in secret as there were no partitions provided at the voting centre. We also noticed some committee members were lingering around the voting area. This intimidated the delegates who wanted their votes to remain secret,” he said.

For Mohamad Jamil Hilmi Abdul Ghani, winning the Ledang Umno deputy youth chief post is the first step for the son of former Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman to progress in his political career.