About 30 minutes ago, I received by e-mail a copy of the press statement released by PKR Sec-Gen Saifuddin Nasution today on the matter of PKR’s ongoing election ballot papers that I had blogged about these last two days.
I reproduce that press statement below.
______________________________
KEADILAN ELECTIONS: SECURITY FEATURES AND ELECTORAL PROCEDURES
KEADILAN views with gravity allegations that PKR election ballots are for sale and as many as 1000 ballots can be purchased from last week’s elections and reused this week. An online news site claim that next weeks ballot papers are already available and circulating.
KEADILAN will like to inform all KEADILAN members and candidates that the ballot papers for the past week cannot be used this week or the next two weeks. All ballot papers have the following security features:
1. Ballot papers for the following contested positions have serial numbers:
Deputy President, Vice President, Women Chief, Deputy Women Chief, Vice Women Chief, Youth Chief, Deputy Youth Chief &Vice Youth Chief. The 20 positions in each of the three Excos have up to 132 candidates and are in a booklet format.
2. All ballot papers need to be stamped by Election Officers at the division level just prior to giving them out to eligible voters. Any ballot paper without that stamp will not be valid.
3. Each week’s ballot papers will be printed on different colored papers. This coloured code will not be known to any of the Election Officers until the day of the election. Therefore the impression created that that ballot papers can be reused or recycled is completely untrue.
4. During the election process, candidates for the Deputy President, Women Chief and Youth Chief positions can register their representatives to observe the entire process with the Chief Election Officer – this totals a minimum of 8 representatives from the 8 candidates as election monitors. ALL candidates can register their representatives as counting agents for the positions they are contesting who are allowed to be present to observe the counting of the ballot paper. These electoral procedures can be downloaded from the KEADILAN website.
5. Each Election officers will fill up a tallying sheet which must be signed by him and also the candidates representatives. The said tallying sheet contains the results, the number ballot papers issued, number of votes casted and number of spoilt votes. Many of the candidates in particular those running for the deputy president’s position had appointed their representatives both to observe as well as counting agents practically at all divisions. Such agents were actually present through out the whole process and signed the said tallying sheets.
Issued by,
SAIFUDDIN NASUTION ISMAIL
Secretary General
The People's Parliament 
AgingDemocrat
November 7, 2010
|When I read about these PC’s by PKR Sec-GEN, I can’tnhelp a sense of deja vu as if I’m listening to SPRM’s Deputy Chairman speaking. Most elections have regulations and security features, I admit. But these are only as good as the enforcement and vigilance accompanying it. I submit that the regulatory body overseeing the PKR elections had come up very short in ensuring public confidence in the neutrality and commitment of its staff in respecting public sentiments. Further, the leaders of PKR had not in many ways displayed the kind of sportsmanship that can convince me that this election is transparent in its management. I dread of the day day that these wannabees will be responsible to ensure a free and fair elections for the whole country. Perceptions are real. PKR have to do a better job than “take-it-or-leave-it” attitude. Be convincing with your actions not just words, if you want to reach Putrajaya that is.
Paul Sotong
November 7, 2010
The last explanation on other abuses were brushed aside in same manner. This is absolute total disregard. Have they chnaged the rules again? Does the President absolutely and completely endorse this denial?
cp
November 7, 2010
Sad to see a lot or reactions but no proactions. PKR is still not ready for Putrajaya. The house is too tainted… it is almost a lost cause.
It is as good as voting for BN.
I’m all for 3rd force.
Ahmad
November 7, 2010
Bro, I’m with you on the 3rd force. Sad. Coz actually we can make a different this time. PKR’s house messy!
kai
November 7, 2010
Vote for BN? ? Boleh jalan la. 50 years is more than enough..dont talk like uneducated person
potblack
November 7, 2010
Bro Haris,
Please be responsible in your reporting. Either the Sec.Gen or your informer is telling a lie.So can you tell us honestly whether there is any possibilty that your informer is using you to destroy the creditbility of the PKR elections?
Sang Kancil Guru
November 7, 2010
Why is the Sec Gen running the elections now? Shouldn’t the elections be run by the Elections Committee and the Elections Chairman Molly Cheah?
Saifuddin, the Sec Gen, has shown that he is biased against Zaid and is pro-Azmin. Why is an Azmin guy running the elections now? No current office-bearers of the party should be running the election. It should be done by an independent party. Is Molly Cheah just a puppet decoration for PKR’s elections??
What a bad joke, PKR!!
Kenny
November 7, 2010
With Azmin in the running, what do you expect? I think Molly was initially put in thinking it will be a walkover for Azmin.. when it looks like Zaid’s going to give him a run for his money… Here comes the calvary.. the pro-Azmin Sec Gen steps in and brushes aside the person who SHOULD be in-charge.. all in the name of Democracy for Azmin???
potblack
November 7, 2010
Thanks Kancil for response/comment.Are you a member of PKR? Are you anti Azmin pro Zaid? Stop taking sides.
If all these reports in this blog are meant to destroy the credibility of certain candidates, then it will not only gives a very negative impact on PKR but Pakatan as a whole in the coming GE.
Jong
November 7, 2010
Sang Kancil Guru is right. Any statement/s pertaining to party election – Security Features and Electoral Procedures etc should be the responsibility of the party’s Chairperson of JPP and no one else.
Sec Gen Saifuddin Nasution has overstepped his jurisdiction; he has no business whatsoever as the PKR party election is on-going.
Yes, I also remember Saifuddin had came out in support of Azmin Ali against Zaid Ibrahim. This should further disqualify him from making any statement pertaining to the election.
Sang Kancil Guru
November 7, 2010
@potblack, there is no need for me to attack PKR, it is doing a fine job attacking and destroying itself, thanks to its UMNO-style practices fostered by Anwar and Azmin, who are crazy for complete control of the party.
kawtim
November 7, 2010
Haris ni jadi batu api ke apa tak tau? Isu yg dia bawa hanya membawa kpd perpecahan. Sudah-sudahlah haris oi, daripada hang dok cari pasal nak gadoh baik hang cari point-point utk bersatu pula.
Sulaiman Yusof.
November 7, 2010
Aku tak setuju dgn Kowtim. Aku hendakkan satu proses pemilihan yang benar2 telus, non bias dan demokarasi soheh. Apa guna pemilihan jika ada benda2 yang tidak betul dilaksanakan. MPP sepatutnya mengeluarkan satu kenyataan tentang rasa tidak puas hati anggota dalam proses pemilihan. Kalau dah benar2 telus tanpa rahu2 dan adil bagi semua pihak bertanding, akau akan berlapang dada, walau siapa pun yang menang, tapi aku perhatikan dari mula pencalunan lagi ada pihak dah mula main “caj keting” dan lempar batu sembunyi tangan dan buat bising seolah2 dia yang benar2 berkorban dan ahli parti tanpa soal.
sampalee
November 7, 2010
Dear Haris,To hide their nonsense,they will cast doubts on you to distract.Do not waste time with pr and get on with the third force.When the third force is up and running,we can then co-operate as peers.
k1
November 7, 2010
Bro Haris, I’m not pro PK nor BN…but pls becareful on your sourcing and watch out for double-spy. Whatever information you got from your informer, you should discuss and confirm with Nurul(if not Anwar or Chua) before making any publication. If she or others can not clear the doubt, then you publish your finding like what you did and we will support you. Don’t be used by other party. As I said, if PR is wrong, tell the world and we will throw them into the drain…but just becareful and not be used by others.
drrafick
November 7, 2010
The press release delivers more questions than answers!
nstman
November 7, 2010
Haris, pse remember our enemies are Umno bastards. This internecine carnage must stop. Umno bastards are laughing. Umno bastards are smelling blood.
Mustafa Yunos
November 7, 2010
Kami rakyat marhaen ni nak mengadu kemana? BN dah tentu begitu sekian lama. Selamat ni harapkan PR/PKR akan merubah ke keadaan yang lebih baik. Tapi kalau dah dalam PKR pun begini, apa harapan yang kami ada?
Sang Kancil Guru
November 7, 2010
Harapan adalah diri senditi lah, Mustafa. Jangan depend atas politician, kena guna otak sendiri, jangan undi buta terhadap apa-apa parti, kena menilai dengan teliti dulu. Kalau tak ada option lain, kita tolong Haris buat MCLM.
AgreeToDisagree
November 8, 2010
Calon swasta yang terbaik. Dan kita tidak perlu parti politik untuk menjadi ahli politik. MCLM adalah pengelompokan ahli politik independen swasta. Saya bersetuju dengan Sang Kancil Guru
johnsohcw
November 7, 2010
Why did Rocky Bru suddenly start singing praises to BN to the dismay of people like Haris Ibrahim?
Why did Haris Ibrahim suddenly go on a rampage against PKR since Zaid Ibrahim decided to run for Deputy President?
I got an email today from someone who claims that some bloggers can easily be bought for not very much money, especially those who think they are opinion makers.
I will meet this person later tonight and he will show me evidence that a certain blogger is receiving a paycheck from someone who is front-man for Daim Zainuddin.He was paid to be malicious, create disccord and distrust, and break up PKR as soon as possible.
Ah as the world turns…I wonder who this blogger is.
Paul Warren
November 7, 2010
johnsohcw, assuming you are who you say you are and you are the one Nat was referring to lately in one of his posts, it would sound odd that in this comment you are suggesting “a certain blogger is receiving a paycheck from someone who is front-man for Daim Zainuddin.”
Now, I thought the grape vine had it for sometime now that the “front-man” you speak of might indeed have been you!
Now, as I doubt you’d be implicating yourself with such a blunder, I presume someone is impersonating here, ya?
vasantha
November 7, 2010
I think PKR is a lost cause. Too many things seem to be wrong.That is why I think PAS is a better alternative. It is a tried and tested party. I think a honest Islamic government is any time better than what the secular parties has to offer. The in-fighting within the PR parties leave a bad taste in the mouth. The third force is beginning to sound more and more like a good idea. Dear Haris, I like your stand on many things.Like Cromwell,the reluctant Lord Protector of England maybe it is time to accept the mantle of leadership. A good leader will inspire other able lieutenants to follow suit!
shar101
November 7, 2010
Sooo .. where is Molly Cheah?
Have the PKR secretariat taken over the running of Pemilihan 2010?
Saifuddin’s press statements of late on the PKR elections indicates a total breakdown of accountability.
Either the CEC is fully in charge or it’s purpose and/or personnel has been compromised by vested interests.
And Wan Azizah may actually know what’s going on.
4RAKYAT
November 7, 2010
pls focus.
we need pkr to be in pakatan. we need every soldier. we will deal with trojans in pkr later. not now. let them be.
do not let negativity sways us off track. whatever it is, please “belakang cerita”. now, galvanise all our resources to KUBURKAN UMNO.
our mother of all causes is to KUBURKAN UMNO. u forget that, umno will screw your backside for another 50 years. do u guys really enjoy having umno’s dirty dick lodged inside your anus all these years?? i’ve had enough. u can enjoy the pleasure. keep it lodged inside your anus. as for me, i want out. i will sell my soul to the devil himself if he can get rid of umno. including ku li or sakmongkol or any1 in umno. just KUBURKAN UMNO. everything WILL BE BETTER.
4RAKYAT
anna brella
November 8, 2010
In the administration of Law the guiding maxim for a healthy judicial system is that Justice must not only be done but it must be seen to be done by the general public. If public confidence in the legal system or in the character/integrity of judges is dented or destroyed, then the real tough nut to crack first is the public confidence-personal credibility problem before one can move on to put right the legal system or the judges.
Similarly, when it comes to the administration and conduct of democratic elections, the most important requirement and health check is that they are conducted fairly and impartially and importantlt, that they can be proven to the public as having been conducted on those stringent basis. Otherwise, you will have the same hard and unforgiving public confidence-personal credibility tough nut problem to crack if you give enough people the IMPRESSION that you are not conducting the elections in the manner you are expected to in order to assure the public that their valid expectations are being met by those who have the responsibility for delivering on those reasonable expectations.
Some obvious questions and points of view on this election exercise which in my view, seems to be a bit of a wasted effort in PR terms unless of course, it’s being used as another tactic to point towards something perhaps strategically worse in Malaysia:
1.Assuming the allegation Haris has made about the ballot papers are true and can be proven (PKR should be able to cross check the serial numbers easily), how did this informer get hold of those serialised ballot papers for the prior week’s election? If ballot papers are only issued to the election officer at each divisional polling station on the day of the election itself and are then tallied at the close of the election, what happens to the unused ballot papers? Are the serial numbers on both used and unused ballot papers checked against some control list to identify if there are any duplicated ballot papers that have been double counted – see 4 below?
2.Are all used and unused ballot papers returned to the election committee for potential double-checking against the tallied sheets from each division as an independent review exercise, or are the unused ballot papers destroyed at the polling stations by election officers?
3.How does the election committee assure itself that the printers of the ballot papers are professional i.e.trustworthy? Have the printers and those who distribute the ballot papers been vetted to verify their credentials as reliable businesses/suppliers to use? Has the election committee signed legal purchase contracts to ensure the printers and distributors abide by the terms and conditions to guarantee secrecy (of ballot paper colours) and security of the ballot papers printed?
4.It is said that these ballot paper booklets are handed out to eligible voters at the polling stations and are stamped at the time of handing them out with an official stamp to validate them. So, are the stamps also produced and kept secure and protected from abuse in the same way as in 2 above? What’s to stop an eligible voter from getting some extra or duplicated ballot papers from someone plus the valid rubberstamp in advance and then sneaking in the extra stamped ballot papers when they come in to vote and then stuffing all their ballot papers into the box in the confines of the polling booth?
5.How does the election officer confirm that the voter who comes in to vote is indeed an eligible voter who is entitled to vote at that election and is in fact who they say they are? How does the election officer deal with the real risk of someone coming in to vote at the same election more than once as people can easily disguise themselves if they think it important enough to do so? Does the election officer have a list of the names/membership numbers of eligible voters so that the election officer can cross eligible voter names off that control voter-list once they have come in to vote?
6.How does/did the PKR election committee address the risk of potential collusion to rig the elections between election officials, candidates and voters at each of those division’s polling stations? How does the election committee assure themselves that the stated election procedures will be adhered to by all election officials and that there is no room for those procedures to be manipulated by those in charge of enforcing those procedures?
7.Why are communications on the conduct of the elections apparently being handled by those who are/may not be members of the election committee? How will such communications gaps help instil public confidence or assure the public that PKR’s party elections are being conducted in a healthy manner?
8.What was the real purpose behind these (messy) elections?
9. Why was an independent sub-contracted source not considered from the start to run this election for PKR so as to protect PKR’s and PR’s public image and its members’ reputations from these sorts of clearly foreseeable risks, predictable accusations and potential allegations?
10. What do such alleged shortcomings in the conduct of these small-scaled elections portend to say about PR’s professionalism or its capability to govern the nation well in accordance with democratic and constitutional systemic procedures and key audit checks and balances like for instance, ensuring that the Election Commission is held strictly accountable by MPS in Parliament for its conduct and administration of Malaysia’s democratic elections?
11. If this is the level of mess that can happen in a mere political party election, can you imagine what will happen to the country’s governance system if those elected as MPs were to allow the Election Commission to act (or to be coerced into acting) in a similarly unprofessional manner when conducting Malaysia’s general and by-elections?
12. If that calamity were to happen on a national basis then what you will get logically and naturally (assuming you continue to run the election machinery in the same way without correcting its highlighted errors and worse, also keep electing the same lot into power each time) is the dead certainty that the governance system will fail in an incremental way after each election process until you get total system failure at which point your governance system will have regressed so far back from the freedom based progressive one bequeathed to you in 1957 by your British colonial masters that it might well look and feel like the present Ketuanan Melayu-based rotten UMNO/BN Ratship Malaysian Dictatorship that YOU have either voluntarily or deliberately allowed or unwittingly imposed upon yourselves so that you are now mostly ruled, and no more governed, by your new feudal system Masters.
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
monreddy
November 8, 2010
hi guys !
We all can go on ranting n panting but guess many of us wan to know de following questions – due to Zaid’s resignation !
So wHO IS the chief of Barisan Rakyat ?
Has it been formed yet ?
How can i apply to be a member ah ?
Monreddy