DAP polls being made a laughing stock

GEORGE TOWN: A day after the shocking disclosure of errors in the DAP central executive committee (CEC) election results, its leaders spoke of the embarrassment the party has had to endure for the blunder. Leading the chorus was national chairman Karpal Singh who, despite claiming that the glitch was an “honest mistake” and “bona fide error”, said such a thing should not have occurred.

“It is still an embarrassment that affects the party in a sense that mistakes (of such nature) are not supposed to happen.

“We expect to receive criticisms from various parties but announcing the mistake showed that we are transparent,” he said yesterday.

Karpal, who is Bukit Gelugor MP, urged election director Pooi Weng Keong to revoke his decision to resign saying there were no sinister motives involved.

On whether the party should hold fresh polls under Section 18b of the Societies Act 1966, Karpal said this wasn't relevant as the matter was “within DAP's constitution”.

He also rejected allegations that the party had altered the results to bring in a Malay candidate so as to appease the community.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang insisted that there was no fraud, manipulation or dishonesty in the election.

“Our political antagonists may see this as a weakness for them to try to exploit and divide the party, but this is in fact a strength where the DAP leadership is prepared to own up to and rectify its mistakes however embarrassing they might be,'' he said.

Lim, who is Ipoh Timur MP, also maintained that the fiasco was not due to vote counting but computer error.

On Friday, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng revealed that there were errors in the tabulation of votes in the Dec 11 election that were caused by a technical glitch when the results were transferred to a computer using Microsoft Excel.

The amendments resulted in his political secretary Zairil Khir Johari moving up from 39th position to 20th which is the last elected position in the CEC. His votes were re-tallied at 803 compared to the 305 announced earlier.

Vincent Wu, who initially secured sixth spot with 1,202 votes, dropped to 26th as the party claimed he actually garnered only 669 votes.

Lim, when met at a function here yesterday, declined to elaborate, saying he had explained everything.