The integrity of the PKR party leadership polls took another beating when fresh allegations were raised about the sale of ballot papers to a particular candidate.

sabm forum 230110 haris ibrahim Party secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution however firmly denied the allegations that well-known blogger Haris Ibrahim ( right) raised yesterday.

"That allegation by Harris is malicious. It's not true," Saifuddin told Malaysiakini today.

On his blog the lawyer had made a posting titled "PKR, and its ballot papers, up for sale," claiming that a man had met him with proof of the matter.

According to Harris, he was told that PKR election supervisors could manipulate the percentage of voters by adding on to the ballot papers, in order to rig the polls results.

The informant, said Harris, had implicated deputy president candidate Azmin Ali, the party secretariat and several members of the elections commitee.

The blogger posted photos of the incriminating ballot papers and questioned if more were available.

pkr election pc 071110 saifuddin wan azizah syed husin PKR held an emergency press conference at their headquarters in Petaling Jaya this afternoon to counter the allegations.

Saifuddin ( centre in photo ), accompanied by PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (l eft ) and her deputy Syed Husin Ali ( right ), explained the security features in the election system that made it hard to manipulate.

Colour codes

Amongst them were serial numbers and colour codes for ballot papers on different days in different areas, an official elections officer stamp to validate the papers, and representatives nominated by the candidates to supervise the counting.

"With these features in place, we can confidently reject any claims that ballot papers are being recycled," he said.

Therefore, said Saifuddin, the party had grounds to continue the polls as per normal.

"These accusations do not affect the polls, hence we will not stop the elections," he said.

When asked about reports of a division chief in Sabah who had caused trouble during the Kudat division polls last night, Saifuddin, who is also Machang MP, said that he had not received the complete report on the incident.