Anwar: PKR’s image tarnished by certain officials’ power abuse

(Mkini) – Newly minted PKR president Anwar Ibrahim said the party’s image was hurt by the abuses of power by certain election officials during the party polls.

“I believe in the integrity of (party elections committee chief) Rashid Din… we picked election officials from among our members, but there are some who abused their power.

“They do not know that as soon as they are trusted with this responsibility, they should set aside any sentiments of who they support.

“And because there were so many reports lodged, PKR’s image was damaged,” Anwar said in his maiden speech as the PKR president at the 13th PKR National Congress in Shah Alam today.

Many members were unhappy with the system and how it was run, he said, including himself.

Although he is not technologically savvy, Anwar said even he knew that information stored in a tablet or in the cloud server can go missing.

“Which means there are huge weaknesses in how it was handled… and this fact is accepted by everyone. So that is why I ask everyone to stop all this factionalism,” he said.

Though he had identified the weaknesses in the electoral system, Anwar said he refrained from intervening with the party elections committee (JPP) because that committee should be free from any influence.

If he had intervened, he added, the party elections would not have been free and fair.

Now that he is officially the president, Anwar said he will look into the party electoral system to improve it.

The PKR party elections, which utilises a “one member, one vote” system as well as a newly-implemented e-voting system, had been marred with allegations of rigging and money politics.