KUALA LUMPUR: Outgoing PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail believes that the controversy surrounding the party’s election in Julau was due to the growing number of party members.
Dr Wan Azizah, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, said the party has expanded over the years.
“Previously, we did not have many members like what we have today. Therefore, some problems are inevitable.
“However, I want the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) to investigate the matter thoroughly, to find out the root of the problem as well as how to solve it,” she told reporters after attending the closing ceremony of national level Hari Puteri of Pergerakan Puteri Islam Malaysia (PPIM) today.
Dr Wan Azizah said the CEC has been entrusted to solve the problem in neutral manner.
“I do not want to take sides, although I have my own candidate of preferences.”
Yesterday, the PKR CEC has suspended the Julau division results in the PKR elections until the infected tablet devices used for voting is restored and data integration process can be carried out.
Its chairman Datuk Rashid Din when contacted however was non-committal when asked on when the results can be announced.
Rashid said update on the matter will be made available tomorrow (Monday).
In a separate statement, Rashid also said that the party was investigating if the incident which took place in the division also affected other divisions where voting was being conducted.
He said that preliminary investigations found that Prey Anti-Theft software had been installed in the central committee’s e-voting tablets that was allocated for the divisional poll on Saturday morning around 4am.
Rashid said the issue was detected by the Systems and Information Technology unit under the committee around 2pm, when the e-voting system malfunctioned.
The Julau polls have been plagued with controversy due to the whopping 12,946 new names that were incorporated into the party records on June 27, marking a 2,147 percent increase from the day before.