Incumbent PKR deputy president Mohd Azmin Ali said today that he had expected the commotion and cancellation of results in the party elections in Selangor, but will wait for the official explanation.

Although he did not elaborate further, other party sources said there was an attempt to block Azmin from being re-elected, as the Gombak MP was also popular in Selangor.

Azmin’s closest competitors for the second highest post in PKR are Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. Based on votes counted so far, Azmin is the leading candidate, with over a third more votes than the others.

“Let’s be patient and wait for the decision of the party election committee (JPP),” Azmin told Malaysiakini when met in Penang today.

Rocked by disputes yesterday, 12 party divisions in Selangor had their voting processes cancelled.

PKR elections committee chairperson Johari Abdul announced this afternoon that 10 of the 12 Selangor PKR divisions would have to conduct re-polling .

Based on official counts until May 4, Azmin has received 9,876 votes against Khalid (6,217) and Saifuddin (5,717).

A source close to Azmin blamed the JPP for what could be an attempt to sabotage Azmin’s re-election.

“Knowing that Selangor is Azmin Ali’s fortress and has the most PKR members, the JPP headed by Johari Abdul and Tan Yee Kew may have purposefully disqualified the Selangor votes,” the source, who declined to be named, told Malaysiakini .

He claimed that confusion broke out at several state voting centres yesterday after the register of voters released by the JPP failed to match the list given out to the divisions on March 15.

Many of the voting centres’ watchers also came late and this further delayed the voting process, he added.