GEORGE TOWN: DAP election director Pooi Weng Keong has taken responsibility for the error in the tabulation of votes in the recent party election and has resigned from the post.
He has also resigned as Federal Territory DAP committee member.
Party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said Pooi had admitted to his mistake and had resigned from the posts.
“He informed me about the mistake on Dec 17 after he did his own checking and realised the error,” Lim told reporters after witnessing the swearing-in of Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) councillors at the City Hall in Esplanade yesterday.
Lim, who is Penang Chief Minister, thanked the party’s central executive committee (CEC) for adopting his recommendation to announce the corrected results even if it would give a negative impact on the party.
“We expect the party to be hammered (over the mistake). We have to bear with the attacks (criticisms),” he said. “What is important is we have to be honest and be truthful.”
Met at another function later, Lim declined to comment on whether the party would hold a recount of the votes.
When contacted, Pooi said he was not involved in the internal and external auditing of the DAP election results.
“After I reported the error in the tabulation, the secretary-general appointed internal and external auditors,” he said.
When asked if he still had in his possession the manually recorded vote tabulation, Pooi said the matter was beyond him now.
In PETALING JAYA, Dr Ong Kian Ming, who headed the internal audit team told The Star that Pooi noticed the errors a day after the election.
“He may have suspected that something was wrong with the results, so he checked it again and found out in the afternoon and told Lim immediately.
“By evening, Lim instructed me to head an internal audit team and appoint external auditors,” said Ong.
He added that it took close to three weeks for the external auditors TCMK Associated Chartered Accountants to complete their audit due to the Christmas and New Year breaks.
“If we were to announce it straight away, there would have been a lot more speculation that we are trying to massage the results of the party polls,’’ he added.
Ong rubbished allegations that the new figures were to appease the party’s Malay members and the public.
