KUALA LUMPUR – Gombak PKR division candidate Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak who lost in the party polls has described the vote counting process and the official results, which were published yesterday, as lacking in transparency and unconvincing.
He opined that the final results had hardly changed following the announcement by PKR’s election committee (JPP) via a statement from its chairman Dr Zaliha Mustafa despite being based on forensic audit findings.
Farhash stressed that it was not the poll results that were disappointing but the casting aside of PKR principles, which in this case saw a process clearly lacking in transparency and yet with barely any effort made to correct it.
“From the beginning, the party election process, more so the counting of votes which is done secretly, creates doubt as it is open to manipulation.
“That said, the answer given by JPP remains unconvincing. Following the unofficial decision on May 29, more than 1,800 complaints and objections were received by JPP.
“In fact, each objection must be furnished with payment. Most of the objections are with regards to the process and mechanism of the online voting using the Adil app, which is being disputed over the involvement of vested parties,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday.
Farhash also said JPP’s statement – that the audit firm appointed by the committee found there were unsuccessful attempts to hack the system – was seen as a ploy to divert attention from the failure to uphold transparency over the results.
He pointed out that most of the objections did not pose the question of whether the system was hacked, but rather focused on the probability of manipulation of the received results by insiders.
The request to JPP, he said, was in relation to concerns which could have been resolved easily and transparently with a recount of all votes, both physical and online, held in front of witnesses consisting of candidates, their representatives, and third parties.
“The application for transparency was completely ignored – in fact, we found from JPP’s own internal sources that the forensic audit did not even cover the online votes which sparked this controversy,” he said.
According to Farhash, even Dr Zaliha herself is now seen as compromising to protect this non-transparent process.
As such, he said there is no need for her to talk about integrity because it does not exist in the context of the PKR polls, as the application for transparency was rejected outright.
“There are many unanswered questions and before we face the people in the 15th general election campaign, it may be good for PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to convince members that (PKR) is still a party that upholds transparency, justice and integrity,” he added.
In May, the former Perak PKR chief questioned the legitimacy of the party’s election results for its Gombak division.
In a brief statement then, he described Gombak division’s polling results, which were released by the election committee, as “highly doubtful”.
According to the tally, Farhash lost to Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari by more than 600 votes in the contest for division chief there.
Amirudin had received a total of 1,842 ballots as opposed to Farhash’s 1,199.
The final results of PKR’s 2022 polls are available here. – The Vibes, July 5, 2022
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