BERSIH TRIBUNAL A PKR candidate has claimed that one of the polling centre chiefs in his constituency in the last general election was actually a prominent Wanita MIC leader in the area.

NONE The claim was made by PKR's candidate for the Tapah parliamentary seat, K Vasantha Kumar ( left ) while testifying before the People's Tribunal on GE13 this morning.

"She is actually a Tapah Division Wanita MIC leader and she is known to the community there," said Vasantha Kumar, who presented before the tribunal a long list of alleged electoral irregularities during the election, in which he lost to MIC's M Saravanan.

He said that the woman was the chief of the polling centre at Sekolah Kebangsaan (1) Jalan Hospital in Tapah.

"According to the law, you must relinquish your party position before you take up such duties," he told Malaysiakini later.

Vasantha said this issue was listed in his election petition but was never argued out since his petition was struck out.

Chased out of the vote counting centre

He presented his list of grievances and alleged irregularities that took place in his constituency during the election, which included him not being allowed to be in the counting centre when vote counting took place.

"Me and my supporters were chased out from the counting centre when we demanded for a few ballot boxes which were yet to arrive at 11pm even though the polling centres were only a few minutes away," he told the tribunal.

NONE Vasantha was only allowed into the counting centre at 1am on May 6, but by the time he went in, the returning officer (RO) announced that Vasantha had lost.

He also said that advance voting ballot boxes were removed from police station lock-up rooms on May 2, three days before the polling day, and were taken away to an unknown location in a lorry.

Vasantha also lost his security aide K Murugan, who was found brutally murdered on election day, five days after Murugan's disappearance on May 1.

The murder of his aide is yet to be solved by the police and Murugan reportedly told his family that death threats were made agqainst him if he continued supporting and working for Vasantha in the election campaign.

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