Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email Well, the group that did the investigation consist of losing candidates, so not surprising that they want to call for fresh polls. Among the allegations: cancellation of handphone ban during voting and campaigning beyond stipulated time. From the way I look at it, its a no-win situation as the complaints will be discussed in the CWC, which consists of the winners and those aligned to the party leadership. Most likely the 7 will be disciplined for “tarnishing” the party’s image.
A group of disgruntled candidates in the Sept 12 MIC party election have today pressed for fresh polls to be held as there were allegedly irregularities during the contest.
They have formed a committee comprising P Subramaniam, who contested the vice-president’s post, and six central working committee (CWC) candidates.
The Pro-Tem MIC 2009 Election Irregularity Committee secretary, N Saaran, said he had raised several issues in a letter of complaint sent to the chairman of the MIC election committee, K Vijayanathan, including the abuse of power by MIC president S Samy Vellu when the election was going on.
“We have come to (the) conclusion that the election committee that conducted the MIC general election was not independent, was not transparent. There were various irregularities that we have gathered.
“We actually sent notices to the election committee chairman, we had requested for explanation why such irregularities had taken place,” he told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur today.
Also present at the press conference were members of the pro-tem committee, including its chairman Subramaniam who lost in the election for the VP post.
Saaran claimed that the irregularities discovered at the election included Samy Vellu’s cancellation of the ban on the use of handphones whereas Vijayanathan had issued a reminder to all delegates before the balloting.
“One of the delegates was caught using the handphone to take a photograph of the ballot paper, this was brought up by one of the candidates to the election committee, however no action had been taken,” he claimed.
Subramaniam said other complaints raised with the MIC election committee chief in four letters sent on Sept 18, 23 and 25 were the actions of the candidates endorsed by Samy Vellu who had violated the rules against campaigning.
“Candidates were prohibited to campaign after 12 noon on Sept 11, but this rule was not followed by this so-called official line-up, there were campaigns after 12pm where there were campaigning in Sentul Curry House by the Youth, Wanita and Puteri MIC wings,” he claimed.
“And not only that, on the election day, copies of pro-Samy VelluTamil Nesan, were distributed to all 1,400 delegates in the hall. In the paper, you could see a lot of campaigning by the official line-up, which was against the rule on campaigning,” he said.
Subramaniam questioned why no action was taken whereas the MIC election committee chairman had earlier issued a warning that any candidate caught campaigning after the time stipulated would automatically be disqualified from contesting.
He said his group was waiting for an explanation from Vijayanathan before taking further action.
Asked what action they would take if there was no change in the decision, he said they would then decide whether to remain in the MIC or join another party.
K Saraswathy, who is a lawyer representing the pro-tem committee, said that while the MIC constitution permits members to take their grouses to the courts, the Societies Act would not allow it.
“According to Section 91 of the MIC constitution, an issue can be brought to court after it has been discussed by the CWC,” she said.
However, she argued that some members of the CWC were not legitimate as they were candidates who had allegedly breached the election rules.
In an immediate response, Vijayanathan said that his election committee did not have the powers to act but added that the complaints could be forwarded to the CWC.
