PKR no more a reformist party, says Ambiga Sreenevasan

(MMO) – PKR has lost the moral right to toot its horn as a reformist party, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said today after its recent internal elections that have been plagued with allegations of misconduct and fraud, resulting in bloodshed and an ongoing police investigation.

The prominent lawyer and member of the Institutional Reforms Committee took to Twitter to voice her disappointment in the Pakatan Harapan party, which she acknowledged had played a key role in the country’s election reform.

“At the very least they need to believe in clean and fair elections to be reformists. They did. Some years ago. When they helped start the Bersih movement,” the former co-chair of electoral reform watchdog Bersih 2.0 tweeted.

In another sharply worded tweet today, Ambiga said PKR was mistaken if it thinks Malaysians are unaware of what was happening in the party polls over the last two months.

She also suggested that PKR should know better after seeing the wrongdoings committed by the previous Barisan Nasional government and having worked towards removing the former ruling coalition in the May 9 general election.

“PKR should not assume for one minute that the majority of Malaysians cannot see what’s going on in their elections. After all they saw through the shenanigans of the last government and threw them out! 13k increase in members in one day? Really?” she tweeted, referring to the controversial number of Julau PKR members.

Julau’s membership ballooned to 13,178 members from just 603 overnight and in spite of complaints of fraud lodged with the police, the party’s election committee had approved the membership and allowed the branch to hold its elections as scheduled last Saturday.

However, the polls were suspended following allegations that the e-voting system was hacked.

Police had also seized seven tablets used in the e-voting system and detained PKR’s election data chief Alvin Teoh for questioning in Sibu.

This morning, Sarawak PKR information chief Vernon Kedit filed a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission over alleged vote-buying in Julau.

He claimed to have provided “damning evidence” to the graftbusters of alleged corrupt practices prior to and after the suspension of the Julau branch’s election.

Besides the controversy in Julau, the party polls have also been marred by claims of phantom voters, vote buying and “technical glitches” affecting the electronic system which is used for the first time in the country.