PAS central committee election was postponed by a day because of printing errors on the ballot papers.
The balloting process had already started when the errors were spotted and the election was immediately halted.
In the ballot papers, one of the delegates’ name was repeated twice, while the name of another was missing.
It is the first time such an error had occurred in the history of PAS election history.
PAS election director Asmuni Awi said it posed a stumbling block to the entire muktamar process.
“Usually the muktamar ends by afternoon on the third day.
“But now, because we have to resume election process on the second day, the muktamar is expected to end later in the evening on Sunday (tomorrow),” he said on the sidelines of party’s 59th general assembly.
However, election for the deputy president and three vice-president’s post proceeded without a hitch on Friday, as no errors were spotted on the ballot papers.
The ballot paper for the deputy presidency race is dark green in colour, light green for the vice-presidency race and white for central committee posts.
Asmuni said they only noted the error after receiving complaint from a delegate.
“Although the error only involved 50 ballot papers, we decided to postpone the election as we do not want any trouble with the ROS (Registrar of Society),” he said.
He said the 1,129 candidates had to return on Saturday morning to cast the vote for the election committee.
He said it was better to rectify the problem on the spot before it blows in the party’s face.
“We had introduced a new system where we print one ballot paper for every contestant and clipped them together.
“It would be easier for tabulation as the papers can be separated. But we have to change back to the old system where all the names are printed on a single sheet of paper.
“It would delay the tabulating process, but at least we can rest assure that the printing error would not recur,” he added.
PAS permanent chairman Abu Kassim Abdullah said such incident was the first in the party’s history.
“I have served as the chairman for 24 years, we have never faced such a problem.
“But it is better to rectify it immediately,” he said.
The name that was missing from the ballot paper was believed to be that of former youth chief Nasrudin Hassan.-thestaronline
