DAP CEC polls: Late Karpal Singh obtains 43 votes

Delegates lining up to vote.

PETALING JAYA: Even in death, the late Karpal Singh managed to snag 43 votes in DAP's Special Congress to pick the party's central executive committee (CEC) members on Sunday (Nov 12).

Karpal's 43 votes placed him in 54th position, compared to third position in the previous polls on Sept 29, 2013, which was not recognised by the Registrar or Societies (RoS).

The other DAP member who dropped out of the top 20 was Dr Boo Cheng Hau from Johor, who once described his party's leadership as a "Soviet madhouse" and incapable of tolerating dissenting voices.

Dr Boo received 384 votes this time compared to the 961 votes he received previously.

The 20 people who received the most votes were almost the same, with the addition of Selangor DAP committee member Ronnie Liu and Batu Gajah MP V. Sivakumar.

However, there were some changes among the number of votes each individual in the top 20 received.

DAP national adviser Lim Kit Siang got the most votes, up from second placing previously, while Liew Chin Tong, who was top before, got the fifth-most number of votes this time.

Meanwhile, Gobind Singh Deo rose to second from fourth previously; Lim Guan Eng went to third from fifth previously while Anthony Loke went from seventh place previously to fourth.

Teo Nie Ching notched a notable increase in votes, rising to sixth place from 17th previously while Teresa Kok climbed up to eighth spot from 13th.

Zairil Khir Johari was in 19th position this time, compared to 12th position in the last polls.

However, only 1,346 delegates voted this time (including 36 spoilt votes), a drop from the 1,725 (including 62 spoilt) who voted in the September 2013 polls.

This is the third time the CEC elections have been held since 2012.

The 2012 CEC polls results were disputed by some members due to a glitch in the process.

A second CEC polls were held seven month later in July 2013 but the results were rejected by the RoS.

The same delegates list that was used in 2012 and 2013 was used this time around.