PKR POLLS | A group of Sarawak PKR leaders have urged the MACC to investigate an alleged attempt to cover up irregularities in the Julau PKR division membership list.

This was expressed through Sarawak PKR information chief Vernon Albert Kedit who lodged the report at the Kuching MACC headquarters this morning.

Sarawak PKR secretary Nicholas Bawin told reporters that Sarawak PKR has exhausted all internal channels to resolve the matter and were left with "no choice" but to involve the authorities.

On Oct 17, Kedit had affirmed a statutory declaration which detailed how Sarawak PKR had sampled about half of the 13,000 new members and found that none had signed up to join the party.

The statutory declaration also contained some allegations of impropriety against Julau MP Larry Sng (photo, below), who joined the party on May 11 and is vying for the Julau PKR leadership in the ongoing party elections. Sng has threatened to sue Kedit.

This document was submitted to the party headquarters but to no avail.



Bawin said Sarawak PKR had to lodge a report with the MACC because PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution had announced that objections on party membership list would no longer be entertained.

"We are left with no choice but to bring this matter to MACC as the irregularities and illegalities which we have been raising within party channels have been ignored," he said.

Kedit said he would urge the MACC to conduct an investigation on whether there was abuse of power by certain party leaders in covering up irregularities that he detailed in his statutory declaration to protect the party's image.

Accompanying Kedit at the Kuching MACC office were Bawin, state PKR vice-chairperson See Chee How, elections director Baharuddin Mokhsen, women's chief Nurhanim Mokhsen, elections chief Iana Akam and several division leaders.

In August, Malaysiakini had uncovered that many PKR divisions experienced a major spike in membership in June, but none was more drastic than the Julau PKR division which seemingly increased by 12,946 people overnight -– a 2,147 percent jump.

Independent checks by Malaysiakini found that 1,181 entries in the Julau PKR membership list were sharing a pool of 584 PKR membership numbers because some membership numbers were assigned to more than one member.

Membership numbers ramped up as the June 26 drew nearer. Only party members who registered before June 26 were eligible to vote in the elections.