Fireworks expected in the last lap of PKR polls

As the lengthy PKR election draws closer to the finishing line, candidates are revving up their momentum for the last hurdle.

In fact, the mudfest of text messages and postings on social network websites has reached fever pitch, hitting closer to home as the messages become more personal, hurling accusations ranging from “Trojan horse” to “non-reformist” to “Malay ultra”.

Campaign workers are already in a frenzy to shore up last minute support from the remaining 57 divisions slated to go to the polls on Saturday and Sunday.

With about 60,000 PKR members still eligible to cast their votes this weekend, the stakes are still high for many candidates who are hoping to unseat team Azmin, which had appeared to be leading the pack.

Party vice-president and aspiring deputy president Azmin Ali has sailed through in the contest for number two without too much trouble, leaving his only rival Mustaffa Kamil Ayub trailing in the dust with a 11,350-vote majority.

Even his well-publicised squabbles with former PKR Federal Territories chief Zaid Ibrahim failed to ruffle Azmin, a shrewd politician and an Anwar loyalist by any standards.

When Zaid announced his withdrawal from the race as well as his resignation from all leadership posts, he was already trailing Azmin by 2,479 votes. It became even more evident that Zaid’s departure did not leave a dent in Azmin’s vote tally.

Team Azmin still lacks clear legitimacy

But still, it is interesting to note that the leading candidate in the vice-presidency race is not one from Azmin’s camp.

Nurul Izzah Anwar, who had previously made very clear that she was in no one’s team (not even Zaid’s, contrary to popular belief), is still ahead in the VP race with 11,042 votes, while PKR strategic director Tian Chua is in second place with 9,524.

In the meantime, elections director Fuziah Salleh ( right ), Penang PKR chief Mansor Othman and supreme council member Xavier Jayakumar - all of whom clearly aligned to Azmin - could only manage third, fourth and sixth place respectively.

The front-runner in the supreme council race, which sees 132 candidates, is Selangor exco member Elizabeth Wong, who holds an impressive 553-vote majority ahead of her closest challenger, pro-Azmin grassroots leader and cleric Badrul Amin Baharon.

While it was evident that Wong would have been the first to voice out her support if Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim were to contest for the deputy presidency, she has traditionally been known not to be too big a fan of Azmin.

Still, in the race for VP, in which the top four will be elected into office with room for three more to be appointed, it is understood that there is already last-minute horse trading to boost the votes for Azmin’s men such as Tuaran division leader Ansari Abdullah and Xavier.

The line-up for vice-presidents traditionally has to reflect the representation of Sabah and Sarawak as well as the non-Malay leaders, and it is said that Azmin is banking on the two to garner enough votes for them to be appointed with a clear mandate from the members for the Azmin cartel.

Youth race a lost cause

In the meantime, the race for Youth chief appears to be a lost cause for Badrul Hisham Shaharin and his running mate Teja assemblyperson Chang Lih Kang against incumbent Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin ( left ), a clear Azmin person.

But praying for a miracle would mean attempting to control the Hulu Selangor division, the second largest in the country with close to 8,000 members.

Fireworks are also expected in Hulu Selangor where they will be having their divisional elections again after “disturbances and disruptions” the first time around.

Although the division under the leadership of Anwar’s former press secretary Khalid Jaafar has been earmarked as an “Azmin territory”, the division has seen rough waters in the polls in October.

Khalid, a party pioneer and veteran, was defeated after a seven-corner contest, although the results were later nullified after his camp complained of a surplus of votes there.