The opening of the seventh PKR national congress was marred by a short protest against alleged irregularities in the recently-concluded party elections and appearance of anti-Anwar Ibrahim literature.

pkr congress 271110 anwar anak tiri india About 50 people, mostly ethnic Indians claiming to be from the Kota Raja PKR division, led by former Selangor PKR treasurer KS Kotappan held a protest with banners with scathing criticism against Anwar, the party leader, and newly elected deputy president Azmin Ali.

pkr congress 271110 ks kotappan The protest was held at the entrance of the Petaling Jaya City Council headquarters. The PKR congress is being held at a hall located here.

According to Kotappan ( right ), the group are seeking for the election results to be nullified because the allegations of irregularities were not being addressed by the party leadership.

“What they (the leadership) want to do here is to show that the elections were successful. That is wrong,” said Kotappan, who attributes his unsuccessful bid for the Kota Raja division leader’s post to electoral malpractice.

pkr congress 271110 azmin ali He claims that he won the contest but his rivals “stole” the ballot box and brought it to the party headquarters for counting without his nominated scrutineer present.

“Until today, there is no answers to our (official) complaints,” he said.

Pressmen threatened

Kotappan’s running mate V Stephen said that polls were dirty and this must made known to the party leadership.

pkr congress 271110 v stephen “Where else can we go?” asked Stephen ( right ).

Kotappan said that his group were not out to disturb the congress but were merely attempting to convince the party leadership to look into their grouses.

“We are seeking keadilan (justice) from keadilan leaders,” he said.

During his short statement to the press, Kotappan was subjected to constant heckling and demands that he leave the venue. Kotappan wrapped up the protest in about 15 minutes.

pkr congress 271110 chasing media At one point, an unidentified individual ( left ) demanded that the press ignore the protest and threatened to confiscated party issued accreditation tags for journalists covering the congress.

This led to a war of words between journalists and the individual, who reacted very aggressively and had to be restrained by others.

Some cooler heads however urged Kotappan and his supporters to raise their grouses at the congress instead.

Anti-Anwar leaflets and newsletters

Meanwhile, newsletters, leaflets and banners hitting out at the party leaders have appeared at the congress venue.

anti-pkr leaflets at pkr congress 2010 One banner appeared just several hundred metres away from the congress venue, hitting out at "cronyism in the party".

Strewn on the floor were also anti-Anwar/Azmin leaftlets. The more creative ones even looked like a newsletter with anti-Anwar news stories lambasting the elections process.

Printed to look similar to the actual PKR organ Suara Keadilan, the mock newsletter was titled "Suara Reformasi", with also a blurb included to "be circulated among pincipled members only".

suara reformasi in pkr congress 2010 The newsletter also had choice stories, lifting news articles from Umno-linked daily Berita Harian featuring former Federal Territories PKR chief Zaid Ibrahim and former deputy secretary-general P Jenapala firing salvos at the party leadership.

Another leaflet had also featured the five MPs from PKR who quit the party and declared themselves independents prominently, lifting their quotes of disillusionment with the party and Anwar.

- Additional reporting by Kuek Ser Kuang Keng and Regina Lee

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