Rafizi Leads Pkr Polls With Over 10k Votes After Seven States Counted

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Rafizi Ramli has a sizeable lead over his rival Saifuddin Nasution Ismail for the PKR deputy presidency race, according to unofficial results released by the party's central election committee.
At the time of writing, Rafizi is ahead with 52,133 votes against Saifuddin's 40,657 votes, based on votes counted in seven states, namely Selangor, Sabah, Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca, Johor and Kelantan.
There are also 6,826 doubtful votes between the two but not enough to change the race for now.
Doubtful votes are votes that will require further verification by the election committee before they can be confirmed.
It was a reversal of fortune for Rafizi in Selangor, who lost the state in the 2018 party election but emerged victorious in the current election.
Huge vote bank
Selangor is a bellwether state with a huge vote bank of PKR members. The state is essential for a viable path to victory.
In Selangor, Rafizi won 25,449 votes to Saifuddin's 22,101 votes. This was despite Saifuddin allying himself with Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari.
PKR deputy president candidate Saifuddin Nasution IsmailAnother major vote bank for the PKR polls is Sabah, which Saifuddin won with 8,585 votes to Rafizi's 6,814 votes.
However, Rafizi won in the other five states. In Negeri Sembilan, Rafizi beat Saifuddin 5,522 votes to 2,559 and in Malacca, Rafizi edged out Saifuddin with 2,427 votes to 1,464. In Johor, Rafizi received 3,967 votes to Saifuddin's 1,117 votes.
Rafizi also won Kelantan and Kedah with 3,107 and 4,847 votes respectively as opposed to Saifuddin's 2,107 and 2,724 votes in the respective states.
In the vice-presidential race, of which four elected positions are available, the frontrunners are Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari (44,916 votes), Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (30,045 votes), Tanjung Malim MP Chang Lih Kang (29,504 votes), and Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Aminuddin Harun (28,616 votes).
Amirudin saw strong backing from PKR voters in Selangor despite his past association with Azmin Ali who defected from PKR to Bersatu.
Selangor MB Amirudin ShariA total of 26,373 out of Amirudin's 44,916 votes are from Selangor, which gives him a strong chance of securing a vice president position. Amirudin is aligned with Saifuddin while Nik Nazmi, Chang and Aminuddin are aligned with Rafizi.
The PKR election also saw a number of surprises with party veterans being defeated.
In Malacca, Hang Tuah Jaya MP Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin (379 votes) was defeated by Mohd Rafee Ibrahim (488 votes) as the division chief.
In Kedah, Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul (464 votes) lost the division chief contest to Ooi Tze Min (567 votes).
In Perak, former Lumut MP Mohamad Imran Abd Hamid (281 votes) lost to Abdul Razak Nazri (409 votes).
In Johor, Sekijang MP Natrah Ismail (93 votes) lost to Yoong Thau (318 votes).
Meanwhile, newcomer Maszlee Malik is expected to win as the Simpang Renggam division chief, barring disqualification of doubtful votes. - Mkini

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