Former PKR Bukit Gelugor division chief Lim Boo Chang has to comply with Gerakan admission requirements as provided under the party constitution in his application to rejoin the party.

Gerakan president Dr Koh Tsu Koon told reporters when asked to comment on Boo Chang's application to rejoin Gerakan after Koh chaired a party central committee meeting, here today.

He declined to comment further on Boo Chang's application.         

"Whatever the decision, it would be announced by the party secretary-general," he said and added that the party meeting today did not discuss Boo Chang's application.

Boo Chang, who announced his resignation from PKR on Wednesday, handed over his application form to rejoin Gerakan at its Penang headquarters the next day.

Koh said he had yet to see Boo Chang's application letter which was still in the party office in Penang.

According to article 11 of the Gerakan constitution, Boo Chang's application needs to be presented by the party office which received the application to the secretary-general before putting it to the central committee for its approval.

Suspended by MCA

Boo Chang, 56, who joined Gerakan in 1984, won the Datuk Keramat state seat in Penang in the 1995 general election under Gerakan ticket and retained the seat in the 1999 general election by defeating Karpal Singh.

Nevertheless, he left the party in December 1999 over his dissatisfaction with the party leadership and joined MCA one month later on Jan 25, 2000 and won uncontested the chairmanship of Jalan P Ramlee MCA branch in Penang in March 2002.    

In December 2002, he was suspended by MCA for refusing to vote against an opposition party motion at the Penang State Assembly in November 2002 and in July 2003, the membership suspension was withdrawn.

In the March 2004 general election, he was defeated by Karpal Singh for the Bukit Gelugor parliamentary seat and in April 2004 he resigned from all posts in the MCA and left the party to join PKR in June 2008 and was appointed as Bukit Gelugor PKR division chairman.

- Bernama