RAFIZI Ramli said no laws were violated by his party elections campaign team as they were using data from think-tank Invoke, which was developed two years ago.

“Phone number information was not taken from the membership list of PKR, instead we used internal data at Invoke which has already existed since 2016.

“My team at Invoke was responsible for conducting surveys and filing voters during the campaign of the 14th general election,” said the former Pandan MP in a statement.

The PKR vice-president was responding to allegations by some party members that he had misused party members’ data in his campaign to contest in party polls next month.

They claimed to have received phone calls from an unidentified number, asking questions about candidates for the deputy president’s post.

Rafizi said the same method was also used in GE14 to study three-cornered fights, which helped deliver Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) victory.

“I and my friends convinced PH leaders to continue with three-cornered fights after studying data from Invoke, even though other leaders such as (Mohamed) Azmin Ali, Tian Chua, Zuraida Kamaruddin wanted to work with PAS.

“No PKR members or PH’s leaders had accused me (and Invoke) of violating the law. They were informed that the data we obtained was through organised petitions, information from private marketing companies and databases built by more than 40,000 Invoke volunteers,” he said.

Rafizi said the only ones who claimed that he had violated the law and wanted his campaign shut down were those from Umno.

“I hope my rival will not borrow Umno’s campaign model in this contest,” he said.

Rafizi said he only received identity card information and this was also given to his competitor.

“This is matched to the Invoke database to identify other information.

“My competitors in the party elections also have the information that I have. We need only use current technologies and a new campaigning culture to reach voters directly, like what I am doing now,” he said. – August 9, 2018.