AZMIN Ali has catapulted ahead in the PKR deputy president race, following the close of the two-day polls in Sabah today.

Unofficial results from voting in 24 of the state’s 25 divisions saw him leading by 1,583 votes after securing 9,555 to challenger Rafizi Ramli’s 8,427. The total does not include the Keningau results.

All in all, Azmin now leads Rafizi by 2,988 votes, based on the unofficial count.

The incumbent PKR No. 2 won 15 Sabah divisions, namely Tawau, Kalabakan, Libaran, Sandakan, Sepanggar and Beaufort yesterday, and Kota Belud, Beluran, Putatan, Kudat, Papar, Silam, Ranau, Tenom and Kinabatangan today.

Yesterday, Rafizi took Kota Marudu, Kota Kinabalu, Batu Sapi, Tuaran and Sipitang, and today, Kimanis, Penampang, Semporna and Pensiangan.

The second day of polling in Sabah saw internet lines disrupted in Pensiangan, raising speculation of sabotage following claims that fibre cables, which supply internet to the district, were intentionally cut.

The polling station was then forced to continue with offline voting.

The results of the Keningau division also remain unknown, despite the party’s central election committee (JPP) promising that they would be out by this afternoon.

According to party sources on the ground, the disruption in Pensiangan lasted for four hours while JPP chairman Rashid Din refuted this, saying offline voting was only carried out for about an hour.

“The telco company came to check and found two fibre cables had been cut off,” said a source, suggesting sabotage.

A similar situation occurred in the Keningau division yesterday, where the JPP had opened up a polling station in a secluded community centre without proper internet access.

Like Keningau, Rafizi had also been tipped to win in Pensiangan as the source claimed more than 5,000 PKR members had turned out to vote in the rural district.

In Pensiangan, voting hours were extended until 7.30pm to allow all PKR members to vote following the internet failure about noon. 

It is learnt a group of voters aligned to Azmin had lodged a police report over the extension of the voting time. 

In Tenom, polling results showed that Azmin had trounced Rafizi by 796 votes to his rival’s 459 votes.

The PKR polls will come to an end on November 10, with 29 divisions in Sarawak voting.

Apart from that, seven divisions from three other states will also cast their votes the next day. – November 4, 2018.