Now, now! Didn't I say that PKR should revert from electronic-voting (e-voting) back to conventional paper ballot voting in the party's vice-presidential elections following the e-voting fiasco in Penang and Kedah.
Whenever I file my income tax return each February, I have the choice to request the Inland Revenue Department send me a paper form for me to fill in and return to them, download a PDF softcopy of the relevant paper form, print it out and fill it in and mail it to Inland Revenue, or to fill in the form online and e-file it. It is the same with filing quarterly GST returns with the Customs Department. (Businesses still need to submit their quarterly GST returns with GST at 0%)
However, here PKR more or less tells its members - "Too bad if you are not IT-savvy enough to vote using our gee whiz smartphone-based e-voting system." or something to that effect.
A Bernama report about problems with e-voting for non-IT savvy voters follows below:-
Help non-IT savvy members vote, PKR election committee urged
Bernama - October 7, 2018 11:40 PM
KUALA LUMPUR: The lack of a special queue for senior citizens and issues faced by non-IT savvy members led to a commotion in several divisions during the PKR polls in the Federal Territories today.
A check at the Lembah Pantai and Wangsa Maju divisions found that the entrances to the voting halls were crowded and members, including senior citizens, had to queue for up to an hour before being able to vote.
Some candidates have suggested that the Central Election Committee (JPP) allocate a special queue for senior citizens and deploy assistants to help voters who are not familiar with the electronic voting system.
PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil said he had reported the matter to the JPP secretariat for consideration.
"I saw this problem happening in this division where senior citizens had to wait a long time to get their turn to vote, and this will definitely be happening in other divisions throughout the country," he said at the polling centre for the Lembah Pantai division at the Eco-Park Community Centre here.
Fahmi, who is also Lembah Pantai division chief and a member of the Central Leadership Council (MPP) said, however, members of the division who faced difficulty in voting as they were not IT-savvy were allowed to bring along an escort to assist them after the matter was agreed upon by JPP officials at the centre.
About 6,000 PKR members are eligible to vote in the Lembah Pantai division, and about 30% of them are senior citizens.
Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul who is a vice-presidential candidate also endured a similar problem and said he was forced to double-up as a facilitator at the entrance of the hall when he went to campaign at the Wangsa Maju division.
"The JPP needs to consider letting those who are not IT-savvy to bring an escort to help them carry out their responsibility. Although supervisors are in charge of assisting these members, their numbers are limited, and voters have to wait a long time before they are assisted.
"This is also to avoid accusations that JPP volunteers were voting on behalf of this group," he said.
The Wangsa Maju division has about 5,000 members who are eligible to vote.
It was a different matter altogether at the Setiawangsa polling centre where a commotion was said to have occurred when a brochure showing Johari's face was sabotaged by unknown parties who placed a sticker showing the number of another candidate, Dr Xavier Jayakumar, to confuse party members.
Setiawangsa branch youth chief candidate Khairul Khairi Ismail said the dirty tactic by irresponsible parties was detected early on, and an inspection was conducted as soon as the voters entered the polling centre.
"We were able to 'detect' it early on, when they were queueing, we checked that many people who got the flyers had the sticker so we told them to open (the brochures). Those who tried to cause this provocation have been expelled," he said.
The PKR leadership election process in the Federal Territories which began today involved 34,892 members from 13 party branches.
Voting should be accessible to all eligible persons – i.e. party members in this case and if some could not vote due to some barrier, such as being not savvy enough to operate the means of voting, such as e-voting in this case, it could lead to questions later as to the validity of the results.
Already, Zuraida Kamaruddin, one of PKR's vice-presidential contestants alleges that fellow contestant Rafizi Ramli's win in the Pahang PKR elections is "suspect" but her team will hold their fire until after the official results of the overall victor are announced in November, as Free Malaysia Today reports:-
KUALA LUMPUR: Zuraida Kamaruddin's team today claimed that PKR deputy presidential candidate Rafizi Ramli's win in Pahang was suspect, but said they would remain "gentlemen" until official results are announced next month.
"Even though we know there are matters we are suspicious of, we are 'gentlemen' about it," she told reporters after inspecting the voting process at Sentul PKR today.
Zuraida is contesting a vice-presidency post, and her team is engaged in a fierce competition with Rafizi's camp for the party's top positions. Rafizi is trying to unseat incumbent deputy president Mohamad Azmin Ali.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2018/10/07/rafizis-win-in-pahang-is-suspect-says-zuraida/
Besides whatever issue or issues Zuraida's team may alleged is "suspect' with Rafizi's win in Pahang, add issues raised over the validity of e-voting results due to non-IT savvy members having difficulty voting and PKR will likely face a real soup or problems to deal with afterwards.
PKR's vice-presidential elections span over a month into November 2018, distracting especially PKR members of parliament and state assemblymen and assemblywoman who are contesting from performing their duties as elected representatives to the country and their state, and any further complications and challenges over the election results will drag matters on further, perhaps will into 2019.
Whilst I am a senior citizen, I have been installing and maintaining computers since before many of today's smartphone and tablet savvy wallahs were born, though I also realise the problems many of my fellow senior citizens and even younger adults, including millennials have with using computers, smartphones and tablets, apart from being expert at using social media for frivolous, time-wasting purposes.
Enough of this IT scheiss, PKR!
Yours trully
IT.SCHEISS
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