Anwar: A special committee will review PKR polls once I take over

SHAH ALAM: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim says the party election process which has been marred by allegations of money politics and scuffles will be scrutinised once he officially takes over as PKR president.

"Later, once I take over, (I will form) a special committee to review the entire election process," he said to reporters during a press conference held at the Ideal Convention Centre (IDCC) in Shah Alam on Saturday Nov 17.

Anwar was present here along with his wife and outgoing party president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail for the three-day PKR national congress which will conclude on Sunday (Nov 18).

He reiterated that, in his personal capacity, he had been very critical of the party election from the very beginning.

"But that is my personal view, of course, and I went along with the party," Anwar added.

The Port Dickson MP stressed that it was imperative to conduct the party polls in a professional and competent manner because it involved some 1 million voters.

"Then, there is also some members in the rural areas who are not computer-savvy, so you have a huge problem in the process," he said.

This is the PKR's first try at conducting party polls using e-voting.

Stressing that PKR was a democratic party, Anwar said that the entire party polls process must be reviewed by a team once it was concluded this Sunday (Nov 18).

"We must assign a team to review it and make recommendations to the leadership and see whether we want to proceed with this process or not," he said.

Meanwhile, Anwar is not ruling out the possibilities of fielding a fresh face in the upcoming Rantau by-election.

"Yes, (that is possible). Nothing is definite for now," he said.

Anwar explained that the entire process of choosing a viable candidate for Rantau required a stringent procedure, which had to be scrutinised by the cabang (division), state, the party's political bureau and, finally, by the president.

"So, I'm not taking sides. We also need to conduct studies, that is the process," he added.

During GE14, the Rantau state seat was to be contested by Dr S. Steram under the PKR ticket.

However, Steram, who's also the Rembau PKR vice chief, was denied entry into the candidate nomination centre to submit his forms because he did not have an Election Commission tag on nomination day.

The Rantau by-election was triggered after the Special Election Court on Friday (Nov 16) ruled the unopposed victory of Datuk Seri Mohamad Hassan as the assemblyman null and void.