The new voting system proposed by the current MCA leadership is an affront to democratic principles and can be abused by the incumbency, claims a source close to the opposing faction.

Speaking to Malaysiakini on condition of anonymity, he explained the matter with a chart that detailed the membership in each state, number of divisional delegates and the number of votes based on data from 2013.

He also dismissed the argument that Umno employs the same system, claiming that a comparison cannot be drawn due to the numbers involved.

"In a lot of MCA divisions, membership is small varying from 500 to 23,000. Out of 191 divisions, one third have delegates less than 100.

"Look at Sabah, with 25 divisions and 34,000 members, and 1,360 delegates; they have 31 votes.

"But look at Kedah, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Federal Territory, Penang and Pahang. The respective membership and divisional delegates in all these states are more than Sabah's.

"However, they lose out in terms of votes. All of them lose to Sabah," he said.

This, he stressed, defeated the fundamentals of democracy that the vote must have same weightage.

He was responding to MCA president Liow Tiong Lai's call for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to amend the party constitution to allow the new voting system.

Advantage to incumbents

Elaborating, the source said if put in place, the new system would provide those in power with an unfair advantage.

"If you gain control of the small divisions, you would secure 70 votes. You only need 210 votes to win. If you can secure 70 votes, it's not very hard to secure others," he added.

Citing Johor, which is regarded as MCA's bastion, as an example, he said compared to Sabah, the southern state has more than 200,000 members.

However, in terms of votes, he pointed out that Johor had 71 whereas Sabah has 31, but with a membership of 34,000.

Furthermore, he argued that the transparency of the new system would also favour the incumbency.

"This is because the divisions who support would be very obvious, so people would tend to toe the line, just like in Umno now," he added.

In order to amend the constitution, Liow wants the 2,375 central delegates to decide on this during the EGM through a show of hands.

This has been opposed by certain leaders, who believe that it should be done through secret balloting as provided by the MCA constitution and a signature campaign has been initiated.

Commenting on this, the source is also of the opinion that such a major decision should not be done through a show of hands, which exposes those who might oppose.

Due to pressure, he said, a delegate might choose to vote in favour of or abstain, in order not to incur the wrath of the leadership.

"Can you imagine if this country conducted its general elections by raising hands, then BN would never lose or for that matter, if MCA conducts its elections by raising hands, the division chairperson would never lose," he stressed.