KLANG: Although his defeat to newbie P. Prabakaran came as a surprise, PKR veteran Tian Chua says it will not deter him from continuing being active in politics.
He lost to Prabakaran, who is also Batu MP, in the fight for the Batu PKR division chief’s post, polling 306 versus Prabakaran’s 517.
“It is unfortunate that I lost, but that does not mean I will retreat from politics.
“I will remain in Batu and contest for the post in the next party election,’’ said Chua, the former Batu MP.
He also said he was rather surprised that party secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had lost in the race for the deputy president’s post.
“I was quite certain that Saifuddin would win based on the support he was receiving from party members and the divisions,” he said.
However, he added the results must be accepted by all and members must not call for a re-election.
“Still, I hope the party will investigate how voting was conducted as there appears to be some discrepancies,’’ Chua said, claiming that the votes did not tally in many places, and this must be corrected so that future party elections could be conducted in a better manner.
“These glitches could be a system error, or negligence by election workers, or election workers ‘helping’ certain candidates,’’ he said.
On Sunday, former Perak PKR chief Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak also alleged discrepancies in the voting.
Farhash, who had contested for the Gombak division chief’s post as well as for a vice-president’s position, is demanding a forensic audit be carried out on the results.He garnered 31,969 votes in the race for the vice-president’s post, and came out sixth among the 17 candidates. He also lost to Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari in Gombak, receiving 1,215 votes as opposed to Amirudin’s 1,858.
In a statement where he demanded for an audit of the PKR electoral process, Farhash said there was “solid evidence” to support his allegations.
Some are also perplexed how Amirudin, who came out first in the fight for the vice-president’s post with 52,838 votes, received 26,373 votes from Selangor but did not make it to the top four in three divisions in the state.
“He is the state PKR chief as well as the mentri besar, so how could that have happened?’’ said a Selangor party member who declined to be named.
Amirudin came in fifth in the Hulu Selangor, Kuala Selangor and Shah Alam divisions.
PKR has four elected and four appointed vice-presidents.
This year’s party polls have also raised questions about PKR’s actual membership numbers, and whether the party really had 1.1 million members as it claims.
PKR veterans’ group Otai Reformis secretary, Abdul Razak Ismai, reckoned the party’s current active members could be anywhere between 500,000 and 600,000.
He believes some of the registered members may have died while others may no longer be active or interested in politics.
