PKR’s central election committee (JPP) has suspended the party’s Batang Sadong division in Sarawak sparked by the detection of fraud in last week’s voting process.

Not ending there, committee chairperson Johari Abdul further moved that the party’s disciplinary committee expel those who won the division leadership positions, including the division chief who reportedly won unopposed.

“We have detected what had happened and yesterday we made the decision to look at the situation closely after we received a complaint from a central leadership candidate who had gone there and saw something suspicious, and then called me,” Johari said.

“After being given solid evidence and going to Batang Sadong myself to investigate, we noticed startling differences, enough to prove that there were elements of fraud,” he said at a press conference yesterday.

Johari also revealed that a polling officer has been “suspended” because he had been “compromised” by a contesting candidate.

However, he refused to reveal the candidate who had “compromised” the officer.

He said that a special unit has already been set up to identify several divisions which allegedly were having difficulties, including one in the peninsula and another in Sarawak.

“I want to remind everyone that whatever the results announced now, it is informal. The real results will only be announced after May 12, and might change,” he said, after indicating that the JPP will show their authority again soon.

PKR member Badrul Hisham Shaharin brought forth the alleged “fraud”, alleging that incumbent deputy president Azmin Ali had a hand in manipulating votes in the Batang Sadong division and thus urged that the latter’s candidacy be dropped by the party.

It is believed that when counting was taking place in three rooms in a budget hotel in Batang Sadong, the doors were opened late by officers, and at the same time there was a “blackout”,adding to the difficulty during the counting period.

Malaysiakini is contacting Azmin for his response over this matter.