PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution said new members who joined the party after June 26 are ineligible to vote during the coming party elections, which begins tomorrow.

"There are now approximately 840,000 voters. Those who registered between May 9 and June 26 are eligible to vote. Those who registered after that cannot (vote)," he told reporters when met at the PKR headquarters today.

Earlier today, Malaysiakini reported that there was a huge surge in the PKR membership in June, over which some grassroots leaders expressed concern that it would affect the election outcome.

Malaysiakini was also able to scrutinise several divisions with the largest membership counts from several states and observed that the registration of new members peaked very near or on the June 26 cut-off date.

It was observed that many divisions still registered a small number of new members on June 27 and this appeared on the membership list issued to individual divisions with the title "Untuk Kegunaan Mesyuarat Agung Tahunan Cabang 2018 Pemilihan 2018" (for the purpose of the annual division general meeting 2018 and elections 2018).

There was one exception - the Julau division in the rural part of Sarawak. This division had 12,967 members who registered on June 27.

Yesterday, Julau PKR division chief Semana Sawang confirmed the figure was legitimate and that the registration was not conducted by his team.

Meanwhile, Saifuddin dismissed suggestions that the party's membership had increased dramatically because of the party elections.

"Why do we need to do that? The surge was caused by, firstly, Keadilan's alliance with Pakatan Harapan, which has formed the government. This 'magnet' is stronger than when Keadilan was in the opposition.

"Secondly, the influx of new members showed renewed confidence, especially towards Keadilan.

"I refute the claim that Keadilan intentionally increased membership figures for the purpose (of the election). To me, the increase in membership was because of an increase in interest after Keadilan is in government," Saifuddin added.

RELATED REPORTS:

PKR’s membership spike sparks concern ahead of polls

The June rush to register members before PKR polls