SHAH ALAM – The final phase of the PKR election process in Selangor, which has the most number of members eligible to vote totalling 249,850 people, is held today at six of the 22 divisions in the state.
The six divisions are Tanjong Karang, Kuala Selangor, Ampang, Pandan, Shah Alam and Hulu Langat which have more than 61,000 members who are eligible to cast their ballots.
Tanjong Karang has 3,418 members, Kuala Selangor (17,737), Ampang (12,626), Pandan (7,017), Shah Alam (9,309) and Hulu Langat (11,858).
The voting process using the e-voting began at 9 am and ended at 5 pm.
The focus in the final phase will certainly be centred on the contest for the deputy president’s post between Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali and former Pandan Member of Parliament Mohd Rafizi Ramli, because Selangor is said to be a stronghold for the Economic Affairs Minister.
In the two phases of election involving 16 divisions earlier, Mohamed Azmin who was also a former Menteri Besar of Selangor was leading with a total vote of 14,315 while Mohd Rafizi had 12,948 votes.
Mohamed Azmin had the support of 10 divisions namely Sabak Bernam, Sungai Besar, Serdang, Subang, Kota Raja, Sepang, Gombak, Kuala Langat, Petaling Jaya (PJ) Utara and PJ Selatan while Mohd Rafizi was supported by six divisions namely Hulu Selangor, Kelana Jaya, Kapar, Klang, Puchong and Selayang.
The Chairman of the PKR Central Election Committee (CEC), Datuk Rashid Din said also drawing attention today was the election at the Ampang and Pandan divisions, where Mohamed Azmin’s stalwart, namely PKR Wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin had won uncontested the post of Ampang divisional head.
In the Pandan division, the contest for the division head involved Mohd Rafizi and three challengers, one of whom is the State Assemblyman for Lembah Jaya, Haniza Mohamed Talha who is also a Selangor State Exco member.
Commenting on the issue of the ‘missing’votes in the election in several divisions in Melaka and Negeri Sembilan earlier, Rashid said the CEC had taken appropriate action such as tightening the e-voting system to ensure that similar problems did not recur in the election today.
“So, the voters need not worry (about missing votes), the voting system is very transparent, there is no issue of us (the CEC) taking any side,” he told Bernama.
He was earlier reported to have said that information technology (IT) experts had confirmed that the 2,000 votes that had ‘disappeared’ in the 2018 PKR Election in several divisions in Melaka and Negeri Sembilan recently was because data was not kept via the ‘cloud’ system due to the weak internet access.
Rashid also gave an assurance that the issue of the existence of ‘phantom voters’ during the election in several divisions in Selangor earlier would not happen today.
“Actually, there is no issue of ‘phantom voters, they have to fill in the form 11. We still allow them to vote but later we will screen them by referring to the form 11, if they are not our party members we will ‘throw away their votes in the waste paper basket’.
“On the allegation that there were military personnel voting earlier, the military personnel cannot vote because they do not have the civilian identity card, and in order to vote they must produce the civilian identity card beforehand,” he said adding that workers for the election were also increased to speed up the voting process at every division.
— BERNAMA
