SABAHANS who voted during PKR polls in Selangor yesterday were actually party members from the state and not phantom voters as claimed by leaders aligned with Azmin Ali, said members of Rafizi Ramli’s camp.

Raymond Ahuar, a member of Rafizi’s team, said it was insulting to the party members from Sabah to be labelled as such.

Raymond, who is Sabah PKR Youth chief, told The Malaysian Insight that of the hundreds of Sabahans working in the Klang Valley, many of them were PKR members, too.

Raymond is vying for the deputy PKR Youth leader’s post in the ongoing party polls.

Following the second round of party polls in Selangor yesterday, the candidate for the PKR Wanita chief’s post, Haniza Talha, from Azmin’s camp, had accused Raymond of sending in “phantom voters to vote for Rafizi in the PKR Selayang division”.

She had also shared a video of Sabahans, who she said were not party members, of trying to vote.

Raymond denied the claims, saying that the Selayang division had members from Sabah. He also confirmed that some of those seen in the video were his supporters.

“In Selayang alone, there are more than 100 members from Sabah. I want to know why Haniza made such a claim against me.

“It’s not good to insult party members from Sabah and call them phantom voters. As far as I know, they are from Sabah and not illegals. They work in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.” 
 
He also urged Azmin loyalists not to take over the duties of the party’s election steering committee in validating a member’s right to vote.

The elections in Selangor had been marred by reports of several altercations in the Petaling Jaya Utara, Gombak, Puchong and Selayang divisions between supporters of Azmin and Rafizi – both neck-and-neck in the race for the deputy president’s post.

Azmin’s team had claimed that their rivals were bringing in non-members to vote in Rafizi’s favour. Azmin also complained about irregularities in the party polls.

He urged the election committee to look into complaints of vote buying and money politics.

PKR’s incoming president Anwar Ibrahim today warned that action would be taken against anyone caught cheating in the party polls.

Meanwhile, former Rawang state assemblyman Gan Pei Nei, who lost to incumbent William Leong for the post of Selayang PKR chief, reportedly called for a fresh election for division, saying that voting yesterday was marred by the presence of illegitimate voters.

Malaysiakini reported her as saying that her team was collecting evidence to support her appeal.

She said voters from Sabah PKR divisions had tried to vote in the Selayang division and that while her team managed to turn away some of these individuals, others managed to vote because “there were simply too many of them”.

“I found about 25 people who were brought here, in a systematic manner, to vote,” she had said, adding that her team believed that four or five buses were involved in ferrying the groups.

Leong, meanwhile, reportedly said he was confident he was in the clear of any wrongdoing.

“There will be a full investigation and there is no problem for me. I am confident that an investigation will clear me of any wrongdoing,” he said.

The final round of the party elections in Selangor will take place next weekend. – October 22, 2018.