Monday, September 27, 2010

Team Rakyat cries foul

Disgruntled members from the PKR Bayan Baru division are crying foul over the election results which revealed a resounding victory and a clear mandate for Sim Tze Tzin, the current state assemblyman for Pantai Jerejak. Sim garnered 499 votes and a landslide majority of 234 votes.

M.Ngnana Sagaran who lost to Sim was clearly disappointed by the results but nevertheless exhibited good sportsmanship in the spirit of healthy competition and as a PKR team member. Both posed for pictures for the press after the announcement of the results last Saturday.

However, less than 24 hours after the election and citing bias within the Election Committee, Operations Manager for Team Rakyat, Anuar Ismail announced that their team does not accept the results and the whole election process. He felt that the election process had been compromised.

“We do not accept the results and the whole process; and will lodge a police report over this”, Anuar conveyed, stressing his dissatisfaction over the results. “We also intend to collect a vote of no confidence against Sim”, he said, indicating a total of between one to two thousand signatures.

The Bayan Baru division has a total of 5495 members. According to statistics, 52% are Indian, 23% Chinese and 15% Malays. M.Ngnana Sagaran had brought in about 3500 members.

An observer who was present at the election, insisted that the majority of the voters who turned up were Indians; and that it had seemed strange that M.Ngnana Sagaran only secured 265 votes. He added that although many voters turned up, the total voter’s count was only 785. There were 21 spoilt votes.

Further allegations were made regarding the 30 minutes break time before the counting of votes. It is also alleged that pro-Sim election workers were involved in the distribution of ballot forms; handling the collection of payment from members; and also guiding the voters to wrongly vote for Sim.

Ex-division deputy chairman, Tan Seng Keat attributed the accusations as being `portrayals of a sore loser’.

“Sim won the contest fairly. Both Sim and M.Ngnana Segaran were in the hall when the Election Committee locked up the hall to rest”, Tan exclaimed, putting at least speculations to rest.