Umno vice-president Shafie Apdal will take steps to clean up the party's membership list and keep it updated as part of the party's steps to attract more members from the youth and working

professionals.

shafie apdal pc 310308 shafie Shafie, who spoke during a press conference after attending Universiti Kuala Lumpur's Sixth Convocation in Putrajaya today, said that he was in the process of devising the methodologies and approaches and had yet to forward his plans to the party's supreme council for deliberation.

"I've called for meetings and we have yet to polish some of the steps. We plan to beef up (the party) to be in a position to ensure more support from the younger generation and professionals from other sectors and industries.

"These are our target groups. I'm sure we are able to increase the number (of members), and what is also important is the quality aside from the quantity.

“We're cleaning up as soon as possible, possibly the time frame is less than a year and I will inform on the updated list when the time comes," said Shafie, who is also the rural and regional development minister.

He also said that the updating and clean up exercise was to ensure that the list consisted of active party members only as there could be those who were still in the party roster but had died, migrated to other countries or joined another political party although he admitted that the number of those who "hopped ships" was small.

According to Shafie, this situation had led to miscalculations during the electoral process as on paper it seemed that the party could win and yet this was not translated into votes.

Isa has proven track record

Regarding the Bagan Pinang by-election, he said he was confident that BN would retain the seat as under the BN government the constituency had enjoyed much progress.

"They (Pakatan Rakyat) say that under their leadership there would be much progress. But the people have seen and can evaluate what had happened in Selangor and Penang under their administration.

"Tan Sri Isa Samad is truly a local and is well known. Many voters know that he had proven his services for the state and constituency. I also call on the voters not to be afraid to come out and vote although several groups were trying to scare them," he said.

- Bernama