Three get warning letters


At least three – one minister and two Members of Parliament – have been issued warning letters, reprimanding them for their actions over the ongoing party polls.

(The Star) – The PKR Central Election Committee (JPP) is on a major crackdown of its candidates after mounting complaints from its members.

At least three – one minister and two Members of Parliament – have been issued warning letters, reprimanding them for their actions over the ongoing party polls.

A PKR source said more would be receiving warning letters from the PKR Committee of Complaints, Appeals and Discipline.

Dr Xavier is vying for one of the vice-president’s posts, while Akmal and Leow are standing for the chief’s posts of Johor Baru and Hulu Selangor respectively.

They denied receiving any letter but a JPP source confirmed otherwise.

The PKR Committee of Complaint’s blog pointed out that several other complaints were received from six states. Nine of these were rejected.

One complaint was referred to the PKR Disciplinary Committee while another was considered serious enough to call for a re-election in Kedah.

The PKR secretary-general also stripped the membership of Puvin­thiran Gunasegaran, the PKR Youth exco for Merbok.

“I believe this is an attempt by some to use dirty tactics to discredit me, especially with my position seemingly positive for the post of vice-president,” said Dr Xavier.

“I contacted the chairman of the committee Dr Syed Husin Ali at 4.15 today (Wednesday) and he informed me that there is yet to be any warning letter issued or signed by the committee.”

Akmal, who is leading the race in Johor Baru, said the matter had been decided by the party’s JPP and members should not dwell on it.

His fellow contender Richard Tan had claimed that Akmal assisted a voter through the electronic voting process on Oct 5.

“If people keep questioning JPP’s decision, this will affect the work and image of the committee,” said Akmal.

“I think there was a video that went viral on social media showing that I was talking to an election agent. I was actually telling the agent to undo certain things after I saw some intervention.”

Leow too said she was not aware of any allegations against her.

“It is nonsense! And I have not received any letter and only found out about the matter through the media,” said Leow who has been elected as the Hulu Selangor division chief.

She added that the allegation was baseless, as she had not engaged the voters in a bid to influence them.

She explained that she was helping with groundwork at her division’s polling centre due to lack of manpower.

“The Hulu Selangor division has 19,000 members and only 22 polling officers were stationed there and so I asked my staff to help,” said Leow.

She said she was inside the polling premises, giving her staff instructions, not engaging the voters.

A PKR source said that there was no specification in the PKR Consti­tution or bylaws as to how many letters of warning a candidate could receive before being disqualified.

PKR elections, which began on Sept 22, have been fraught with allegations of glitches, phantom voters and chaos from day one.

Vice-president Tian Chua said he welcomed the actions by the JPP.

“Warning letters are insufficient and inadequate to ensure a smooth election process,” he said.

“The main cause of the problems arose from arbitrary procedure by the JPP and problematic membership list provided by the SG office.

“The conduct of some JPP officers showed clear bias.

“This created confusion, allowing members to cast doubt on the election process.”

 



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