Was Zaid sabotaged?
According to them, posters and banners delivered before nomination day (April 17) were not put up because the “other teams” refused to budge until they received the financial allocation promised to them. There were also reports of banners and posters having mysteriously vanished in the hands of these teams. About 15,000 posters and some 100 banners went to waste.
By Stephanie Sta Maria, Free Malaysia Today
PKR’s defeat in the Hulu Selangor by-election has been the subject of much analysis and speculation from every possible angle.
Among others, the blame has been placed on Barisan Nasional for “buying votes”, which the ruling coalition has denied, and the character assassination of PKR candidate Zaid Ibrahim.
However, there is also another serious allegation making the rounds – internal sabotage.
Contacted by FMT, several party sources cofirmed this, calling it “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“From day one, Zaid’s presence in PKR has been an unsettling factor for some ambitious leaders in the party. These people feel threatened by him,” they said.
When the former law minister was officially announced as PKR’s candidate for the Hulu Selangor by-election, the party insisted that it was an unanimous decision.
But sources told FMT otherwise.
“While no one objected to his candidacy, their acceptance was delivered with reluctance,” they said.
This corroborated observations made by political analysts that Zaid lacked internal support because he was Anwar Ibrahim’s choice and not the party’s.
Sources claimed that Zaid was forewarned not to rely on the PKR machinery for his campaign.
PKR officials, however, expressed outrage over these claims, arguing that they worked around-the-clock to ensure that the campaign ran smoothly.
Some even accused Zaid of “tripping himself.”
“He appointed his own team when he had the party machinery. The lack of cooperation between the two is to be blamed for any inconsistencies on the ground,” the officials told FMT.
But sources claimed that most of those who put in the real work were from Zaid’s personal team of supporters from Kelantan.
