Jeyakumar favourite to take over PSM chair, Sarasvathy also considered

After the announcement that founding chairperson Dr Nasir Hashim will step down as PSM chairperson, all eyes are on who will succeed him.

The party's former secretary-general S Arutchelvan told Malaysiakini that three people were initially nominated - former Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj (above), outgoing deputy chairperson M Sarasvathy and Arutchelvan himself.

"Jeyakumar is the big favourite, an experienced and respected leader," said Arutchelvan.

"The only issue is that the party is also considered the value of having a female leader. Even though I was nominated for the chair as well, most likely I am going for the deputy chairperson post," he added.

In the somewhat complicated PSM selection process, there are two stages. The first level will choose the highest leadership of six posts, namely chairperson, deputy chairperson, secretary-general, deputy secretary-general, treasurer and deputy treasurer.

In PSM, the secretary and treasurer positions are not appointed but need to go through the party election process.

In the first stage of PSM selection, all candidates nominated are required to contest at least one post and can not withdraw completely from nominations if they are nominated for more than one position.

Subsequently, the second stage of the poll will see nine central committee member positions filled.

"The complexity of the PSM party election process, which is managed in this way, is to maximise participation, celebrate democracy and provide opportunities for all party members to engage in party elections," said Arutchelvan (below).

Of the three names, Jeyakumar obtained 70 percent of the nominations from branches, while Arutchelvan and Saraswathy received 20 percent and 10 percent respectively.

"Saraswathy and I have withdrawn from the competition for the chairperson's post, but the central committee meeting has rejected Saraswathy's application to withdraw based on party election guidelines," Arutchelvan said.

"Thus the contest for the party chairperson's post this time is a one-on-one competition between two senior activists in the party that shared a common grassroots struggles as both Jeyakumar and Saraswathy are founders of the Alaigal and Kalvi Kullu groups from Perak."

Asked whether PSM required members to contribute a flat percentage of their salaries, Arutchelvan answered that this only applied to those who were elected to public office.

Under such circumstances, they were expected to donate 40 percent of their salaries to the party, he said.

The 21st PSM congress will take place in Kajang from July 12-14 and will see fierce competition for all posts.

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