Monday May 13, 2013

MIC to hold postponed elections this year

PETALING JAYA: MIC is expected to hold elections this year after it was postponed for a year due to the general election.

Party vice-president Datuk M. Saravanan said the Central Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body, would set the dates for the elections in the various branches.

“We will start with branch and divisional elections before the presidential election, all of which have to be completed by this year,” he said.

The party held elections in 2009, with the presidential polls in March that year and the election for national posts six months later.

Each term is only for three years.

In the last presidential election, then president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu retained the presidency for a record 11th consecutive term.

Samy Vellu stepped down in December 2010, after 31 years, paving the way for his deputy Datuk Seri G. Palanivel to become acting president.

Under the party constitution, a presidential aspirant needs to obtain 50 nominations, with each nomination needing one proposer and five seconders, to be eligible to contest.

All proposers and seconders must be branch chairmen.

The MIC president would be picked by about 4,000 branch chairmen nationwide in the event of a contest.

Saravanan said the deputy president, three vice-presidents and 23 seats in the CWC would be elected by 1,500 delegates who attend the party's annual general assembly.

The elections for the Youth, Wanita and Puteri wings are to be held a week before the party's general assembly.

More News