About two-thirds of the 2,050 signatures in the pledge of support for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi purportedly from an Umno division in Sabah are not genuine, claimed a party member turned whistleblower.

"Only 650 members signed up," said Abdul Mutalib Mohd Dawi, one of the Umno members involved in the signature campaign in the ruling party's Silam division, told malaysiakini .

The 'Support Pak Lah' petition originally targeted a total of 5,000 signatures and was initiated by the division's controversial acting head, Samsu Baharun Abdul Rahman.

When only a few hundred signatures were collected, the organisers of the petition allegedly decided to try other means.

"The rest of the signatures were the work of phantom hands who filled the forms in secret sessions over two nights," said Mutalib.

He said the majority of Umno members had refused to sign the petition not because they were against Abdullah, but were dissatisfied with Samsu's leadership at the division

Samsu, who is member of parliament for Silam and Ministry of Entrepreneurial Development and Co-operatives parliamentary secretary, was earlier found guilty of money politics by the Umno disciplinary committee.

However, he was later cleared by the party's appeal committee and was appointed acting head of Silam division.

Mutalib alleged that the final petition included the names of 100 deceased persons and 250 people who had defected to the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat recently.

"The signature list was based on the Umno computer sheet for 2004," he added.

ACA report lodged

The division's acting head, according to Mutalib, originally planned to collect 5,000 signatures and compiled them in three books. But after three months of collecting signatures, only 650 Umno members had inked the petition.

"Only one book, containing 2,050 signatures, was presented to Pak Lah on his return from Australia in July ( photo )," Mutalib said.

Mutalib said he decided to tell the truth because he did not want the prime minister to be "bluffed and cheated".

However, he made it clear that just like other Umno divisions in Sabah, most if not all, Silam Umno members were fully behind the Umno president.

Meanwhile, a Silam Umno divisional committee member Rapaan Rabeka told malaysiakini he had lodged a report to the Anti-Corruption Agency in Kota Kinabalu on Thursday against Samsu for alleged corrupt practices and abuse of power relating to the distribution of aid to flood victims in a village in Lahad Datu a few months ago.

Rapaan said he only knew about the alleged incident a month ago and decided to lodge a report to the ACA. The agency had told him that the matter would also be referred to Chief Minister Musa Aman when conducting the probe.