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.
It's finally over .. or is it? written by Jaspal Singh Gill,
Tuesday, February 27 2007 12:25 am
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.
Bar Council 2007/2008 Election Results written by Nik Elin Nik Abd Rashid,
Tuesday, February 27 2007 06:57 am
Exactly my sentiments....
Report not complete! written by Andrew Sin Cheok Kum,
Tuesday, February 27 2007 11:31 am
I believe most members would like to have details of the forged ballot papers. To whom the forged votes favour? That should be revealed!
Finality written by Lee Shih,
Tuesday, February 27 2007 12:18 pm
I hope that this brings an end to this deplorable affair of forged votes. With the vote counting and verification being carried out in front and with the support of the police, I really hope that everyone can accept the results and for the Bar to move on and be stronger after this scandal.
It is never late. written by Thirumalai Palaniappan,
Tuesday, February 27 2007 12:50 pm
Good work.
Bar Council 2007/2008 Election Results written by Nik Elin Nik Abd Rashid,
Tuesday, February 27 2007 01:09 pm
Dear Andrew,
The whole fiasco was actually a sabotage... so the forgers would not have put in their choices .... but that of their enemy.
Does it matter? written by Ng Chung Yee,
Tuesday, February 27 2007 02:06 pm
Well, it would be interesting to know in whose favour the votes were for, but then again, the intention of the culprits were obvious, they knew the forged ballots would be discovered. Wouldn't it be easy then to defame someone by marking their names over and over again on all 52 ballot papers? Again these candidates given the benefit of the doubt are innocent 'victims' themselves.
Well Done! written by Desmond Choi Wai Onn,
Tuesday, February 27 2007 05:35 pm
My hats off to the leadership of the Bar for taking this courageous move!
Finality written by Tan Pean Khoon,
Tuesday, February 27 2007 11:19 pm
Finally, this is over. Thanks to the newly appointed scrutineers, the policemen, the secretariats and all others who helps in.
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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.