KUALA LUMPUR – The independent forensic auditors who assessed the recently concluded PKR party polls had gone through every vote, physical or digital, before signing it off, said Fahmi Fadzil.
Speaking to The Vibes, the party’s communications director was addressing a slew of concerns regarding the auditor’s findings, which had ended in some changes to the election results.
Among the issues raised by party members were changes such as Dewan Negara senator Fadhlina Sidek defeating Batu Tiga assemblyman Rodziah Ismail for the Wanita PKR chief’s post.
Also, rapper Syed Ahmad Syed Abdul Rahman Alhadad, popularly known by his stage name Altimet, ended up winning the Ampang division’s top post against actor-producer Datuk Hans Isaac by nine votes.
Stressing that the auditors went through all the votes, he said there were three categories of votes. The first was online voting, which Fahmi did himself.
And then there is voting on tablets, for which there are two categories.
“One is that they cast their votes on tablets connected to the internet. And then there are offline tablets, used during voting, but not connected to the internet.
“After the ballots are over, the election committee staff and those involved in managing the election will sync the tablets to the cloud.
So, the auditor went through all of the tablets, the votes, whether they were cast as online votes or physically on the tablets,” said the party official.
On July 8, newly minted Gombak PKR youth vice-chief Khairul Anwar Rosnan said in a statement that the concerns raised by many party members over a lack of transparency by the JPP were justified.
He had also asked why only the physical votes were audited, while the online votes were not.
Fahmi recalled that during a meeting on July 6, the election committee itself had recommended to the party’s Central Leadership Committee (CLC) that the results of the elections at divisional, women, youth and central levels should be screened and signed off by the auditor.
He stressed that any “results” made by any individual prior to the official announcement by the election committee are nothing more than speculation or supporters’ excitement, and candidates putting the cart before the horse.
And the important thing here is that the auditor is able to sign off on verified votes. Auditors have to sign off on their findings.
“So, in the case of Ampang, as is the case with the women’s chief, the CLC saw that for the auditor to sign off on their report, these votes had to be processed and screened by the auditor.
“So, the authorised official result signed by the auditor is the one that the election committee released on their website. The only official result is the one announced by the election committee,” he said, adding that the auditor was appointed by the election committee and not the CLC or the candidates, as alleged by certain parties.
Furthermore, he added that, like any other professional, the auditors are ready to step up and defend their findings.
Previously, PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim assured members of the full audit process being carried out by an independent firm, following feedback from its complaints committee panel.
On July 4, party election committee chairman Zaliha Mustafa said the audit findings revealed that there had been attempts to tamper with the results.
“However, such problems have been identified, and audit experts suggested for us to update our voting records,” she said. “Necessary actions have been implemented following results of the digital analysis.
She also said that the issue did not affect the wins of the majority of central and branch candidates.
The official tally can be viewed here. – The Vibes, July 13, 2022
