MCA members at large had observed the no-contest rule determined by the party recently although there were a few exceptions, said party president Dr Ling Liong Sik today.

"I'm quite happy. The vast majority of them complied with our ruling," he said when asked on Kapar Wanita's insistence last night to conduct its own election.

Ling conceded that the party's top leaders were "a little bit apprehensive" about whether the grassroots will abide by the no-contest rule at first.

However, the feedback received two weeks ago indicated that the defiant elements were "minor", he said.

"Over the last few days, many challengers also withdrew their nomination," he added.

Ling said the elections steering committee headed by secretary-general Dr Ting Chew Peh will decide what to do with the errant divisions once more information was available.

Incumbent defeated

Yesterday, Kapar Wanita MCA went ahead with their election where challenger Yew Bee Hooi who scored 84 votes, defeated the incumbent chairperson, Tan Kim Wan, who obtained 18 votes.

Yew was quoted in the Chinese media today as saying that the ' status quo ' and 'no-contest' rule by the party was just to enable leaders who had lost support to cling on to their posts.

The Kapar result is expected to be declared null and void by the party headquarters.

MCA had adopted the peace agenda put forward by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad last month to end the year-long bickering between Team A led by party chief Ling and Team B led by his deputy, Lim Ah Lek.

Despite this, when the 166 MCA divisions went for nomination last Friday, about 40 divisions saw imminent challenges for various posts.

As a last resort, secretary-general Ting announced that no ballots will be given out at the two-day divisional polls which started yesterday, and any earlier nomination from challengers will be struck off automatically.

Meanwhile, the Kapar division defied the party's directive and proceeded with its election this morning. Former division Youth chief Khoh Siew Kim beat incumbent chairperson Tee Tiong Hock by a majority of 226 votes. Tee obtained only two votes.

Over 300 delegates attended the division's annual general meeting but about 80 of them, mostly Tee's supporters, staged a walkout when the speaker, Tan Cha Bon, allowed balloting to be held.

When contacted, Khoh said he considered himself the new division chairperson.

Not pre-planned

He said the election was not pre-planned by him or his supporters. "It's not like I masterminded the whole thing. It was just spontaneous because many delegates wanted to go to the ballot box."

Asked what he thought of the chances for the party leadership to accept the polling result, Khoh said, "I will submit it to them and let them decide. I'm sure the leaders will have enough intelligence to tackle the problem."

According to him, the result had shown that Tee was no longer favoured by the grassroots in Kapar. Tee could not be reached for comment despite numerous attempts.

The Kapar 'battle' is believed to have gone beyond the feud of the two factions within the MCA.

Khoh and Tee were from Team A previously but things changed when Tee reneged on his promise to step down this year citing the party's status quo rule.

An upset Khoh then mobilised his supporters to take over the division from Tee through an election.