As more irregularities and controversy in the MCA membership list surface each day, the embattled leaders of Team B may be seeking a court injunction to stall the partys election in June.

The discrepancies, according to a high-ranking party source, appear to indicate that Team B leaders are on the verge of being wiped out of their positions in the party.

However, we leave the matter (court injunction) to deputy president Lim Ah Lek, said the source, who requested anonymity.

We are waiting for the higher authorities to come back to us regarding the list. They have found some evidence. Or else, we are considering taking the matter to court, he added.

The source was responding to the latest revelation in the New Straits Times today that four MCA branches in Kapar, Selangor, saw an increase of at least 400 percent new members who are mostly from Johor, in the last six months of last year.

The report, quoting an insider, said that three police reports have been lodged by people whose names are on the membership list in the division but have never joined MCA.

Element of fraud

According to the report, party members are questioning how so many members could be recruited over a short period of time and if there was any element of fraud in the membership list.

An insider said several MCA members visited the addresses of 178 new members which were selected randomly from the register. They managed to obtain affidavits from 161 of them who admitted to never having joined MCA.

Meanwhile, the source said Team B leaders have also met with Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Putrajaya last Thursday and presented him the evidence on the membership irregularities.

Pak Lah (as the deputy premier is popularly known) was shocked when he saw the evidence, said the source.

It is believed that the matter would be taken up as a national security matter as forgery, fraud and possible theft of identity cards are involved, the source added.

According to the source, Team B leaders have also met with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad before the premier left for Russia.

As a result, Mahathir asked the party leadership to prolong the inspection period of the list from five days to 21 days.

The 21-day period gave Team B leaders the opportunity to dig for discrepancies and early this month, they submitted the alleged fraudulent cases to the premier.

Asked if there were any signs of the party elections being postponed in view of the membership controversy, the source said reading the lines between Lings words that it could be delayed if deemed necessary by the election steering committee was misleading.

Politically, he (Ling) is in charge. Eventually, he decides on everything, the source said.

Tainted with discrepancies

Ling had said the elections could be postponed as demanded by Team B leaders as they alleged that the number of delegates for the assembly was tainted with discrepancies.

The party president, however, noted that a majority of the members wanted the party elections to be carried out as scheduled as more than 90 percent of them did not object to the membership list and their wish must be taken into consideration.

Last Friday, some 50 MCA state leaders disputed the number of members who were deleted from the partys new membership list, claiming that it does not correspond with the decrease in delegates attending the upcoming AGM.

Earlier this week, steering committee chairperson Dr Ting Chew Peh announced that after going through complaints that there were 9,121 dubious members, 868 names have been struck off, representing barely 0.1 percent of the one million-plus MCA members.

Ting, who is also the partys secretary-general, added that 2,667 delegates will be present at the AGM this June to vote for their central leaders.

Worsening internal split

On Thursday, Mahathir berated MCA leaders from both factions for worsening the internal split.

He urged the leaders to have a positive agenda which is pro-active for the betterment of the community.

He added that the upcoming party elections will lay the internal problems, which have haunted MCA for more than a year, to rest.

MCA leaders have been divided into two camps — Team A and Team B— since the party acquired two Chinese dailies last May.

Team A, which favoured the deal, is led by Ling while Team B is led by Lim.

The party elections, held every three years, will start at branch level this month, division level in April, state May, and central leadership June.