Umno does not really have 2.7 million members, a fact which is frequently touted in the mainstream press, said political commentator and KeADILan activist Raja Petra Kamaruddin in a review of the total of votes received by Barisan Nasional in the recent elections.

He said that Umno's membership amounted to only one million with the rest thrown in to make the party looked good.

"The truth is that Umno does not have 2.7 million members," said Raja Petra in a commentary entitled "Umno's ghost members" . "Umno's real membership stands at only one million. The other 1.7 million were padded to make the figures look good."

Raja Petra, who was a journalist in The Star for six years, argued that the membership for the 13 BN component parties does not add up to over 1.3 million.

"MCA, MIC and many other component parties within the BN also did the same (pad up their membership figures)," he explained. "Therefore, it is estimated that the real membership of BN does not exceed even two million members. This explains how BN got only three million votes in the recent elections."

Umno's membership drive began in earnest after the original party was declared illegal in 1988.

"In order for Umno Baru to claim the assets of the banned Umno, it had to show that at least 70 per cent of old Umno members had joined the new organisation."

This was when Umno Baru found it necessary to pad its membership with names from the old Unmo, said Raja Petra.

According to Raja Petra, not even a single division or branch in Umno Baru was able to organise its annual general meetings because of the lack of quorum.

"They cannot get enough 'members' to attend their AGM because these members do not exist, other than on paper only," wrote Raja Petra, who in the past had been active in both Umno and PAS.

"Many divisions also suffer from the same dilemma, and meetings were only conducted the second time around after a number of cancellations. This has been a perennial problem of Umno Baru," he said.

In addition, many Umno members who had left the party did not formally resign from the party. "Therefore, in Umno's books, they remain members," added Raja Petra.

PAS has claimed that several hundred thousand ex-Umno members have joined their ranks since the sacking of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, and so far the Islamic party's membership has risen to over half a million.

In the last general elections, PAS received 45 per cent of the 2.7 million votes that went to Barisan Alternatif.