SIX PKR divisions in Kedah ran into problems during elections today, causing the polls there to be postponed, said Rashid Din.

The party’s central election committee chairman said this meant results from Kedah would not be announced later today.

Kedah and Penang are the first two states to conduct the PKR polls today, with more than 105,000 party members voting to elect divisional, state and central leaders using the new e-voting system.

Rashid told The Malaysian Insight that while the voting process proceeded smoothly in Penang’s 13 divisions, although after a slow start, voting at six of 15 divisions in Kedah had to be postponed.

The six are Sungai Petani, Merbok, Jerai, Alor Star, Kulim-Bandar Baharu and Padang Serai, he said.

“The disruptions at the six divisions were due to many reasons. Some were because of technical issues, some because the queues were too long and people got angry.

“The incidents are not serious. However, they were serious enough to postpone the voting,” he said.

Rashid said a new date would be set later for the six divisions’ members to vote for their leaders.

It is believed problems in Sungai Petani, where members voted at Dewan Beng Siew in Pekan Lama, and Alor Star, where voting was held at Dewan Serbaguna Inspin on Jalan Sultanah, concerned technical issues with the e-voting system.

In Padang Serai, a ruckus broke out at Dewan Serbaguna Paya Besar in Lunas, the voting venue.

Kedah state exco and Lunas assemblyman Azman Nasrudin said the incident had “many causes”, including a technical problem with the e-voting system.

“The system was down and that led to all sorts of other problems. We will issue a statement to explain what happened later,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

PKR allows all its more than 800,000 members nationwide to vote for their party leaders at all levels. This is the first time the party is using the e-voting system.

The party polls ends on October 7 with the Federal Territory members being the last to vote, ahead of the PKR national congress in mid-November. – September 22, 2018.