SHAH ALAM, 15 Oct: The ‘one division one vote’ election system practiced in the Umno Election 2013 does not reflect the wants of the majority of the party’s members from the grassroots.
Political analyst, Prof Datuk Mohamad Abu Bakar said, through such as system, leaders who win the position struggle do not necessarily win the position in terms of the popular vote.
This is in contract of the ‘one member one vote’ practiced by PKR which gives the power to each member to elect their leaders to the highest level.
“I am not such how this system can affect the election transformation.
“The only thing that supposedly has portrayed more democratic atmosphere has crept upon the Umno leadership and election, but can the mixed-feelings really be channelled in terms of the final selection, that is what is difficult to be measured,” said the lecturer in International Studies and Strategy from the University of Malaya (UM).
Previously, a famous pro-Umno blogger, Syed Akhbar Ali, assumed that the victory by Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil as the Wanita Umno Chief and Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar as the Umno Youth Chief is not an absolute victory because the votes cast by Umno members were eventually considered as one vote per division.
In addition to that, he also questioned the transparency of the Umno elections committee, which he claimed to be keeping secret the popular vote as if trying to hide something.
Apart from a chaotic election system, the election this time was allegedly marred by the existence of phantom voters, shortage in ballot papers, the number of votes exceeding the delegates, an incident where a microphone was thrown, confusing ballot papers and so on.