VOTING discrepancies in PKR could have been been avoided if the party had used a different voting system, said Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) academic Dr Mazlan Ali.

The political analyst said despite being the most democratic party in the country, PKR has become the victim of its own voting practices.

He said the problem arises when the number of votes are counted cumulatively, from branch to national level.

“PKR is the most democratic party in the country in terms of its voting system. The concept is direct voting and this involves a lot of bureaucracy and because of that, there will be talk of discrepancies,” he said.

“Unlike Umno, DAP or Amanah, PKR counts the votes cumulatively from branch to national level. Take Umno for example, a party that uses the college voting system, where each division carries only one vote for each post.

PKR polls for the 2022-2025 term ended on May 29. The results are to be announced next month.

The elections took place on May 13-22 and were marred by technical issues.

During the polls, there was no contest for the posts in 57 of the party’s 222 divisions.

It was reported that 136,629, or 12.22% of PKR members had voted in the party elections, 76,932 of whom had voted online, from May 18-20.

A total of 1,118,423 PKR members were eligible to vote in the elections, which saw 11,282 candidates vying for positions at the central, divisional and wing levels.

Party stalwart Rafizi Ramli had urged the PKR election committee to postpone the party polls while they were ongoing until voting discrepancies were sorted out.

The former Pandan MP, who was running for deputy president, said physical voting should halt until the voting system was fully tested.

He said this would prevent delays and bickering among the party members.

But the party carried on with the balloting.

Hisomuddin Bakar of Ilham Centre said the question of voting discrepancies would tarnish the image of the party to some degree.

“People might say, if PKR is unable to resolve its own issues, how can it resolve bigger problems of the country?”

“It could affect Pakatan Harapan’s confidence going into the general election,” he added.

On May 23, it was reported that physical voting in the party elections for eight divisions in four states will be held again before the end of the month.

PKR election committee chairman Dr Zaliha Mustafa said the party had yet to fix the dates for a re-vote in Gua Musang, Pengkalan Chepa, Bachok, Ketereh and Tumpat in Kelantan, Dungun (Terengganu), Hulu Selangor (Selangor) and Padang Serai (Kedah).

She said a re-vote was necessary in the eight divisions because of technical glitches that occurred during the voting process.

Universiti Malaya’s Prof Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi said the party’s election troubles were not a big problem but PKR should find ways to resolve them

“It happens all the time. In 2018, Rafizi lost and he called the elections but this year he won and did not complain that much,” he said

“When it comes to power and politics, those who lose will accuse the victor of irregularities. The same happened in Umno and in DAP.

“Having said that, it doesn’t mean PKR should take the matter lightly. They need to resolve the issue, make the elections more transparent especially with regard to the online system. Who has access to the system? Unless they address the issue, we will see the same thing happening again in the future.” – June 15, 2022.