Rafizi’s Kajang move led to PKR chaos, says Ishak

(Yahoo News) – Former Kedah PKR information chief Ishak Man has blamed party strategic director Rafizi Ramli for the party’s internal crisis, in particular, the latter’s role in masterminding the Kajang by-election in March.

Ishak claimed that the Pandan member of parliament was the architect behind a power tussle between a faction led by PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and another group led by her deputy, Azmin Ali.

He claimed that Rafizi had orchestrated the Kajang by-election as a “double-edged sword” to provoke Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim to contest the PKR deputy president’s post, while, at the same time, “to stab Azmin in the back”.

“Rafizi is the architect who has engineered disasters in the party, as he wanted PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to stand in the Kajang by-election,” Ishak said here yesterday.

However, he claimed that instead of helping Anwar get an acquittal from his sodomy charge, Rafizi had failed and made the situation worse.

In the Kajang by-election, Dr Wan Azizah defeated Barisan Nasional candidate Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun with a majority of 5,379 votes.

The by-election was held after PKR assemblyman Lee Chin Chen, who won the seat with a majority of 6,824 votes in the general election last year, relinquished his post without a valid reason.

Issues surrounding the PKR election process, which has dragged on for more than two months, are said to be affected by what had happened during the by-election.

Factions jockeying for positions turned the party polls into a chaotic mess, with incidents of violence and accusations of vote-rigging delaying the final outcome of the polls.