Utusan says Khalid risks losing MB post after losses in branch polls
(The Malaysian Insider) – Umno mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia today expressed sympathy for PKR’s Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, who is facing mounting pressure from his colleagues to resign as Selangor menteri besar.
Awang Selamat, the collective editorial pseudonym, said today Khalid, who previously fended off accusations of having links with Umno, now risked losing his job following his recent loss in the Kuala Selangor branch elections.
“Awang sympathises with Khalid, who is facing increasingly stronger tests and pressure from his own party, PKR, and the opposition’s component parties,” said Awang.
Utusan’s Sunday edition said that Khalid’s loss was the best opportunity for his enemies in PKR to pile pressure on him.
It also suggested there was foul play in the PKR elections, noting that a person with the title of menteri besar could be defeated in the Kuala Selangor division chief post by S. Manikavasagam.
“Awang is inclined to believe that something was not right,” said Awang, hinting that he supported Khalid’s claim that “flawed” elections had caused the loss in Kuala Selangor.
“Maybe it is true what they are talking about within PKR, that there is truly an organised movement to topple Khalid,” he said.
Awang said that it was “odd” that Khalid won in the vote counts in Kuala Selangor for the position of deputy president, defeating Azmin Ali, but lost the division chief’s post, with the same voters.
He also said that Khalid was no match for Azmin, who had a comfortable lead in the race for the deputy presidency.
“The PKR election committee can give any excuse but they do not seem to be convincing. The question is, was it a coincident that a blackout happened in the whole block at Tropicana when the vote counting was being done.”
Awang said that this was not the first time power outages became an issue in the PKR elections, which have been fraught with incidents of alleged violence and fighting.
Aside from PKR, he said, leaders in DAP and Selangor PAS, such as Jeff Ooi and Khalid Abdul Samad wanted a new menteri besar.
“Will Khalid just admit defeat or rise up to surprise everyone?”
Last week, Khalid lost in the tussle for the position of Kuala Selangor PKR division chief to former Kapar MP Manickavasagam, who won with a majority of nearly 200 votes.
Manickavasagam, recently reinstated as a party member after being punished for speaking out against Khalid previously, secured 701 votes against Khalid’s 515 votes.
However, Khalid later said that the elections were “flawed” and called for a thorough investigation to prove there had been no sabotage in the vote-counting process.
