MUAR: Fresh from its surprise victory in the Gadek state seat in Melaka, all eyes will be on the MIC elections on Friday with six candidates vying for the three vice-presidencies and 60 candidates going for the 21 central working committee (CWC) seats.
MIC secretary-general Datuk M. Asojan said more than 24,600 MIC delegates from more than 4,000 branches nationwide would be electing their vice-presidents and CWC members during the elections from 4pm to 7pm.
Asojan, who is vying for a vice-president (VP) post, said the other candidates were incumbents Datuk T. Mohan, Datuk C. Sivarraajh and Datuk T. Murugiah.
New faces are MIC executive secretary AK Ramalinggam and party information chief Datuk V. Gunalan.
Asojan said the most recent announcement was on Nov 19 when Datuk Seri M. Saravanan won uncontested as the party’s deputy president. MIC president Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran also won uncontested in May this year.
Asojan said the new line-up of leaders was important as they would be the ones leading the party into the 15th General Election (GE15). He added that as the party’s election machinery secretary, he had been busy ensuring MIC reclaimed its Gadek state seat from the DAP in Melaka.
“Out of the 21 seats that Barisan Nasional won in Melaka, at least 18 seats had a 5% Indian voter population. This shows that Indian voters played a key role in all the marginal seats.
“We need to ensure this outcome also happens in GE15,” he said, adding that it was paramount for MIC to continue recruiting more members, especially among the young.
On the party polls, Asojan said the elections which started at the branch level in April had so far been a muted affair with no major untoward incidents.
“We have also had all our division elections in October, which proceeded smoothly,” he said, adding that for the voting this Friday, all divisions had been reminded to adhere to the Covid-19 standard operating procedure set by the National Security Council.
Asojan said he hoped to create history as the first elected VP from Johor in the party’s history.
“I hope to bridge the gap between the party grassroots and our top leadership as we need to hear their views and ideas to continue to attract more Indians into the MIC,” he added.
