AGM null and void, say PKR members

(The Star) – A group of PKR Pokok Sena founding members are threatening to bring their case to the Registrar of Societies if the party fails to resolve the controversy surrounding the rightful division committee.

The founding members, who held their division elections and annual general meeting on Oct 22, want the party to reject the elections and AGM held on Sept 17 by a group led by Cheung Khai Yean.

Cheung, a former Derga assemblyman, had quit Gerakan to join PKR in 2008.

Abd Halim Othman, who claimed to be the rightful deputy division chief, said Cheung’s membership in the division was questionable.

“Even before Cheung’s team came and ‘hijacked’ the division, I was still serving as the deputy chairman. His application for membership must go through us.

“We never received their applications and were shocked when Cheung and his team called for an AGM and polling without the knowledge of the rightful committee members,” he said.

Cheung, who won the division chief post uncontested in the Sept 17 division polls, claimed that he had sent invitations by post to about 200 members.

“But more than 50 letters were returned. Perhaps the members had changed their addresses and did not inform the headquarters,” he said

Meanwhile, PKR vice-president candidate Nurul Izzah Anwar said the decision of the party to downgrade her name from the second to ninth position in the ballot paper would be a setback for her.

“It has come to my attention that on Oct 27, the party headquarters announced changes to the order of appearance for the vice-presidential candidates on the ballot papers,’’ she said.

Nurul Izzah said the central leadership council had initially issued the confirmed list of candidates on Oct 24 in which her name was listed in the second spot.

“Was the first list not the confirmed list? If so, who was responsible for publishing it?” she asked.