YOURSAY 'The party does not conduct an election every week or month, so how can an event of this importance be managed so shabbily?'

Botch-up in DAP polls result, Zairil elected

Kosongcafe: While still wondering how this could happen, the fact that a relatively unknown received more than the expected number of votes should have made those experienced to double check.

We are often lulled into taking figures for granted, so this is a good lesson for all. DAP should be proud of this admission of mistake which enhances its principles of integrity, transparency and accountability.

Onyourtoes: While the disclosure is good for integrity and transparency, I think the party must also seriously think of getting the right people to do the right job.

The party does not conduct an election every week or month, so how can an event of this importance be managed so shabbily?

To me, it appears there is no monitoring, supervision and oversight at all. The fact that the mistake was at the expense of a Malay candidate is beside the point.

But I wonder if the mistake has been at the expense of DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng (LGE) that day, would the investigation be more immediate and thorough.

Wira: The election committee of DAP should have immediately suspected that something was amiss when a newcomer and political lightweight came in at fifth position and check their tabulation.

It is a simple but yet a serious mistake. I am happy that the party chose to be transparent instead of concealing the truth as others would have done so since the matter had already blown over.

Now I expect criticisms from BN component parties and their sympathisers will focus on the fact that Zairil Khir Johari is not a true blue Malay.

SKT: The BN mercenaries are going to say that there is LGE's conspiracy move to put an elected Malay in the party's central executive committee (CEC).

ABBN: Wait a minute! Why does it take three solid weeks to discover and rectify such a serious mistake? Something is very fishy here.

Don't tell me that DAP is that inefficient? I don't think the truth has been revealed. Somebody is still trying to do the covering up. DAP, better speak out before the truth reveals itself.

Mokhsein Abdullah: This reminds me of one of the many leadership lessons from Captain Kirk of ‘Star Trek' in the original series.

"In both yourself and others, it is important to remember that people will always make mistakes. We learn more from our mistakes than we do by doing anything perfectly. It is how we grow.

"A good captain does not flaunt his own mistakes, nor does he dwell on the mistakes of others. Accept it, assess it, and move on."

As Captain Kirk said: "If I can have honesty, it's easier to overlook mistakes."

Lim Chong Leong: DAP should not "be relieved" that a Malay was voted in by party delegates. Everyone should be voted into the CEC on merits and not race.

If the CEC was all Chinese, we must accept that. If it was all Indian, we too must accept that. Likewise if it was all Malay, so what? People want, people get. That is what democracy is about.

Puchong Mali: The mistake is amateurish but at least the upholding of transparency and integrity is commendable.

SiPekTuLan-BN-Liao: Dear DAP Returning Office, please find the root causes and review the whole processes.

You need to put in place a solid foolproof election and audit process to ensure this does not happen again in future.

Otherwise, it will be very embarrassing and creates doubt in people's mind that your election result may be fraudulent.

Ren Ai: If DAP can make such a mistake, the Election Commission can do much worse and blame the spreadsheets.

Jiminy Qrikert: Ren-Ai, this is undoubtedly a major botch-up. But it is also a major rectification. The difference is the mistake was made in private and until it was discovered and made public, nobody was the wiser.

But the rectification was made because of due diligence in ensuring their results were subjected to external auditing and made public.

Now that DAP has done this, Pakatan Rakyat parties will be expected to do no less. And Umno-BN will also have to behave accordingly to be credible.

Cantabrigian: Kudos DAP for coming up clean about their mistakes, otherwise Umno-BN will take this up as an issue.

Since you have apologised and corrected the error, the rakyat most probably will forgive you and give credit for your honesty.

Anonymous_3ec6: DAP screwed it up, but I appreciate their courage to admit it openly.

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