POWER ABUSE IN PKR ELECTION - FORMER DEPUTY SEC-GEN

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 (Bernama) -- Former Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) deputy secretary-general S. Jenapala Perumal today claimed that there is power abuse and misuse of government machinery by certain candidates offering to contest in the party election scheduled in November.
He said there were state executive councillors, especially from Selangor, who were found to be using their positions to travel throughout the country to campaign for selected candidates.
He said Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, as PKR advisor, and party president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail must come forward to make clarifications whether the allegations were true or false. Otherwise, the claim that PKR was a party that practised democracy in the election would be disputed.
"I am surprised to hear from Selangor that the state excos are using the government machineries and their positions to do propaganda for their favourite candidates. They even travelled to all over the country seeking support for their favoured candidates.
He said Anwar should also take immediate steps to stop the tactics by certain groups who were using his name to gain support as this contradicted the democratic practice in the PKR which allowed everyone to contest.
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PKR-JENAPALA 2 (LAST) KUALA LUMPUR
He also urged Anwar to act immediately against certain groups who were clearly spending money to gain support on the pretext of holding open houses in conjunction with Aidilfitri.
"Thousand of dollars had been spent for dinners, hampers presented in the name of ''rumah terbuka'' and now for pesta tanglung...this must immediately be stopped by the party leaders. These are very unhealthy processes," he said.
Jenapala, who had resigned as deputy secretary-general in 2008, also claimed that he was denied the opportunity to contest the post of deputy president after the three nominations he had received were rejected by the Party Election Committee.
Jenapala, who is a member of the Ipoh Barat PKR, claimed that he had received three nominations from the PKR Ipoh Barat, Batu Gajah and Beruas divisions which held their meetings yesterday and thus qualified to contest the post.
However, he said the nominations were rejected by the returning officer, Dr Lee Boon Chye by informing the delegates that he was no longer a party member whereas a check made at the PKR headquarters on Friday showed that his membership was still valid.
-- BERNAMA