DAP CEC Meet

The same set of leaders were returned today to the DAP central executive committee (CEC) after the new election ordered by the Registrar of Societies (RoS).

The line-up included Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari who was elected with a higher majority. He is the sole Malay to be voted into the 20-member CEC.

He polled 1,132 votes, coming in at 12th spot, as opposed to last December’s election where he barely made the cut with 803 votes.

The soft-spoken 31-year-old was thrust into the limelight in the last polls after a technical glitch in vote counting put another candidate into the CEC. The error was discovered and when it was corrected, Zairil found himself in the CEC.

Today, Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong obtained the highest votes at 1,438, followed by party veterans Lim Kit Siang at 1,436 and Karpal Singh (1,432).

Karpal's son, Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo was fourth highest with 1,409 votes, with Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng closely following on 1,304.

Others voted into the CEC were:

* Chong Chieng Jen (1,294)

* Anthony Loke (1,263)

* Chow Kon Yeow (1,203)

* Fong Kui Lun (1,193)

* Teng Chang Kim (1,164)

* Tony Pua (1,158)

* Teresa Kok (1,127)

* Chong Eng (1,111)

* M. Kulasegaran (1,088)

* Tan Kok Wai (1,088)

* Teo Nie Ching (1,081)

* Boo Cheng Hau (961)

* Nga Kor Ming (956)

* Ngeh Koo Ham (809).

Returning officer Dr Ong Kian Ming announced the results at 8.15pm, well after 1,725 out of 2,576 delegates cast their votes in the morning.

"We took a long time to ensure all tallying of votes was done properly and audited by our auditors," he said.

The party has been at loggerheads with the RoS after DAP announced that technical glitch in the December polls.

DAP held a fresh CEC election today to avoid deregistration, as ordered by the RoS on July 30.

RoS acted on the complaints of several disgruntled members who claimed the December election was not properly conducted after the party announced that a tabulation glitch had resulted in the wrong candidate being elected to the CEC.

They also claimed they were not informed of the party polls.

Party national organising secretary Anthony Loke had rebutted the allegations that it did not inform 753 delegates of the party polls and produced evidence of members’ attendance records and signatures, plus postal receipts which showed notices were sent out.

This time, an international auditing firm was appointed by the party to monitor the counting process to avoid a repeat of what happened in December.

An elated Zairil said he was happy to have received more votes and that the line-up remained unchanged.

"The status quo of leaders remains. It shows we have foiled RoS's attempts to cause trouble in DAP," he said.

In thanking delegates for their trust and support, a shocked Liew said he never expected to poll the most votes and beat even party stalwarts.

The newly elected CEC members will next decide among themselves who will be the office bearers. - September 29, 2013.