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To: Members of the Malaysian Bar
Dear Members,
Re: Bar Council Election 2007/08
Pursuant to decisions made at the Bar Council meeting on 22
February 2007, three scrutineers have been appointed to complete the tasks of
verifying and counting the returned ballot papers, and thereafter of declaring
the findings.
The scrutineers appointed are Tuan Hj Zain Azahari, Mr.
Puravalen, and Tuan Hj Zainudin Ismail. They undertook the tasks of verification
and counting today, in the presence of the police. The process was also
videotaped.
The Bar Council thanks all of them for their invaluable
services. We also extend our appreciation to the police for their kind
cooperation.
The scrutineers have reported their findings and declared the
result. Their report is enclosed.
Thank you.
Dated 26 February 2007
Yeo Yang Poh
Chairman
Bar Council
REPORT BY THREE SCRUTINEERS TO COMPLETE THE TASKS IN
RELATION TO THE BAR COUNCIL ELECTIONS 2007/2008
1. The Chairman of the Bar Council, Mr. Yeo Yang Poh sent individual letters
dated 23 February 2007 to us: Zain Azahari, Zainudin Ismail and M Puravalen,
appointing us as Scrutineers for the purposes of completing the tasks in
relation to the Bar Council Elections 2007/08.
2. We were requested to perform the following tasks:
(a) Verify the authenticity of all the returned ballots;
(b) After the authenticity (or otherwise) of each of the
ballots has been ascertained, to count the votes cast on the authenticated
ballots (discounting any spoilt or otherwise disqualified ballots), and to
derive at the sum total of votes each candidate had received;
(c) To declare the result of our findings on the above to the
Secretary of the Bar Council.
3. We started at 8.45 a.m. Our venue was the conference meeting room of the Bar
Council. We were assisted by Mr. Kenneth Goh and 30 Secretariat staff. In
attendance were three representatives of the Royal Malaysian Police comprising
of ASP Koh, ASP Tarmizi and Chief Inspector Franky Wong. A police photographer,
Corporal Mustapha Dick, was also present. The Secretariat had a video cameraman
to record relevant stages of the proceedings.
4. ASP Koh handed to us two sets of keys to two boxes. The first box was opened
and found to contain 2 cardboard boxes containing 135 sets of counterfoil books.
The second box was opened and found to contain two cardboard boxes containing 68
bundles of ballot papers and one cardboard box of envelopes containing returned
ballot papers.
5. We found 3,403 ballot papers from the second box. We proceeded to
authenticate them.
6. The overall details are as follows:
(i) Total ballots received : 3403
Out of these we found the following:
(a) Number of replacement ballots : 18
(b) Total number of forged ballot papers : 52
(c) Total number of spoilt ballots : 38
(ii) Total number of valid ballots : 3313
7. We decided to accept the replacement ballots as valid on the basis of
decision made by the Bar Council at its meeting held on 17 November 2006 which
decided that replacement ballots be issued with the same serial number but with
a different colour. “If both the replacement ballot paper and the original
ballot paper are returned, only the replacement ballot paper will be counted.”
8. The results of counting the valid ballot papers are as follows:
| No. |
Candidate |
No of Votes |
| |
|
|
| 1. |
Hendon Mohamed |
1874 |
| 2. |
Muhammad Shafee Abdullah |
1349 |
| 3. |
Edmund Bon Tai Soon |
1282 |
| 4. |
Cecil Rajendra |
1266 |
| 5. |
Hamid Sultan bin Abu Backer |
1257 |
| 6. |
Low Beng Choo |
1213 |
| 7. |
Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari |
1181 |
| 8. |
Ragunath Kesavan |
1156 |
| 9. |
Christopher Leong |
1142 |
| 10. |
Roger Tan Kor Mee |
1115 |
| 11. |
Lim Chee Wee |
1035 |
| 12. |
Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera |
1004 |
| |
|
|
| 13. |
Yasmeen binti Haji Muhamad Shariff |
999 |
| 14. |
Zulkifli B Noordin |
984 |
| 15. |
Jerald Gomez |
971 |
| 16. |
Mohd. Rafie bin Mohd. Shafie |
930 |
| 17. |
Andrew Khoo Chin Hock |
921 |
| 18. |
Abdul Fareed bin Abdul Gafoor |
904 |
| 19. |
Steven Thiruneelakandan |
902 |
| 20. |
Zarizana binti Abdul Aziz |
892 |
| 21. |
Shamsuriah binti Sulaiman |
862 |
| 22. |
Ramdas Tikamdas |
837 |
| 23. |
George Varughese |
815 |
| 24. |
G K Ganesan |
787 |
| 25. |
Lee Swee Seng |
751 |
| 26. |
Murad Ali bin Abdullah |
708 |
| 27. |
Md. Radzi bin Mustafa |
691 |
| 28. |
Augustine a/l Anthony |
636 |
| 29. |
Vernon Ong Lam Kiat |
603 |
| 30. |
Boniface Lobo a/l Robert V Lobo |
461 |
| 31. |
Raphael Tay Choon Tien |
448 |
| 32. |
P Suppiah |
387 |
| 33. |
Jegadeeson Thavasu |
313 |
| 34. |
Wong Tat Chung |
309 |
9. We hereby confirm and declare the above result of the Bar Council election
2007/2008 as in paragraph 8 above.
Dated this 26th day of February 2007 (10.15 p.m.)
Zain Azahari
Zainudin Ismail
M Puravalen




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Looking at the Scrutineers' Report, one cannot help but wonder how simple the solution was. And yet in the process of trying to ascertain the results of the elections, one Plaintiff had to take on the Bar Council, three scrutineers, a number of senior interveners with an equally formidable team of lawyers, a pile of interlocutory applications and God knows how many hours preparing for those applications and time spent in Court and now possibly astronomical legal costs enough to make him file for bankruptcy. The solution seems so simple now. This is the first time I've had the nerve to comment on this issue, and I sincerely hope everything can come to a rest, and all candidates involved can accept the results .... though having read some of the comments made by some members and the tenor in which they were written, I don't believe this episode will come to a peaceful end in the near future. Finally, having looked at order of the results, one cannot help but realise why some were so bent on declaring the elections null and void and having fresh elections.