PETALING JAYA: Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-president Mustaffa Kamil Ayub said yesterday that he will continue in the contest for the number two post although he has failed in his appeal for the PKR elections to be cancelled or postponed.
“I understand the frustrations among members and leaders at the grassroots and the dissatisfaction all round … but I will in the interest of the party continue to vie for the post of deputy president even if under protest.
“This decision is also to honour members at the grassroots who wish me to continue to contest the post,” he told reporters here.
He nonetheless urged the Central Election Committee, chaired by Dr Molly Cheah, to investigate reports of electoral manipulations received last Tuesday.
Cheah on Thursday said the Central Leadership Council elections would continue despite calls from members that they be postponed or cancelled.
On his meeting with Cheah on the so-called 48-hour memorandum which ended yesterday for the elections to be cancelled, he said they reached agreement on three points.
The first was for the Central Election Committee to be made truly autonomous, and the second was for a monitoring panel to determine the transparency and integrity of the committee in the 2020 elections, Mustaffa said.
He added that the third point was for action to be taken based on the recommendations of the memorandum.
Mustaffa said that Cheah had assured him that all complaints would be tackled before the PKR national congress beginning Nov 26.
Responding to a question, he said he was prepared to accept the outcome of the contest for deputy president if he believed it to be “fair, clean and transparent.” — Bernama
“Winning or losing doesn’t matter to me.
More important to me is for the process to be carried out fairly and with integrity.”
But he added that he, like any candidate, wanted to win and was doing his best to win.
Asked to comment on a statement by Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, who quit the race for the number two alleging irregularities, that PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and vice-president Mohamed Azmin Ali were the cause of problems in the party and should withdraw, he said: “We can criticise the leaders, but must criticise positively.”
On the assertion by Zaid that he would form a “new reformation party” if expelled from PKR, Mustaffa said that Zaid should think very carefully before making any decision. — Bernama