PKR POLLS | PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has been accused of failing to act on complaints of irregularities in the membership list for the Julau division.

In a statement yesterday, Sarawak PKR secretary Nicholas Bawin accused Saifuddin - who insisted that all membership lists were final - of ignoring two complaints on irregularities that were filed within the stipulated period.

According to Bawin, although state PKR information chief Vernon Albert Kedit made a statutory declaration on the matter after the deadline, one of the two objections was nonetheless referenced within.

The objections were made by Julau division chief Semana Sawang on Aug 18, and by himself on behalf of Sarawak PKR on Sept 10.

“We are very disappointed that the secretary-general of the party did not see fit to officially or unofficially acknowledge, nor respond, to these two written objections.

“Kedit’s statutory declaration of Oct 17 contains and affirms Semana’s earlier objection, which the secretary-general has to date chosen to ignore. Secondly, the statutory declaration contains evidence in support of Semana’s objection,” Bawin (photo) said.

“These are serious allegations, which a secretary-general of any political party cannot ignore. The secretary-general must act on the first objection by Semana.

“This is a blatant dereliction of duty by the secretary-general for not acting on the serious allegations officially brought up by Sarawak PKR,” he added.

Yesterday, Saifuddin explained that PKR divisions were responsible for filtering their own membership lists and raising objections if they encountered any “suspicious names.”

Once these lists have been finalised by the party, he added, it also means no more objections can be made.

'Spike in membership no cause for alarm'

The secretary-general also stressed that the spike in membership was no cause for alarm, and said that it should be understood in the wider context of PKR getting over 300,000 new members after the May 9 general election.

Among the discrepancies found in the Julau PKR division was a 2,147 jump in the number of members in the month of June alone.

According to Sarawak PKR, at least 1,310 of the 13,178 new members in the state denied ever applying or even agreeing to join PKR.

In addition, 1,181 were found to not possess unique identification numbers, while several others had appeared more than once on the membership list.

Bawin warned that this could constitute a breach of the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 if data theft and fraud are found to have taken place.

“We should be mindful of the criminality of the offence alleged and our coalition’s pledge for the rule of laws to be applicable to all, including our party.

“In the circumstances, any complaint to the Registrar of Societies or challenges to the glaring irregularities and illegalities in the courts of law may be detrimental or fatal to the party in particular and to the ruling Pakatan Harapan government in general.

“We must therefore recommend to the party’s central leadership and the political bureau to exercise caution in their deliberation to resolve the rampant irregularities and illegalities alleged,” he said.