PKR will only clean up its membership roll after the party elections, communications director Fahmi Fadzil said today despite concerns over the numbers in Julau, Sarawak, which saw a surge ahead of the polls.

Julau’s membership spiked from 603 on June 26 to 13,000 a day later, after the period to accept new membership applications was closed.

“The membership list will be cleaned up after the elections. This is because we have a clear process to follow once the objection period (to membership applications) is over.

“It’s just like how the Election Commission sets a specific time to clean up the electoral roll. For us, we are not about to do it a week before voting takes place,” Fahmi told The Malaysian Insight.

Julau, one of 29 PKR branches in Sarawak, is set to vote on Saturday, along with 20 other branches. The eight remaining branches will vote on Sunday.

Sarawak is the last state to vote in the PKR elections and is being watched closely because of the membership surge in Julau, where its MP, Larry Sng, is contesting the incumbent Semana Sawang for the branch chief post.

Sng, formerly of the Sarawak Workers Party that was friendly towards Barisan Nasional, is openly aligned with PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli who is taking on Mohamed Azmin Ali for the deputy president’s post.

Fahmi added that the party conducts independent audits of its membership roll and will hold another audit after the elections.

He also told The Malaysian Insight that on polling day, the central elections committee (JPP) will filter out members with double entries in the roll using their identity card numbers.

“JPP will filter and accept one IC number only for the voting process.”

Fahmi, who is also Lembah Pantai MP, earlier today issued a statement on Julau’s membership roll, noting that the headquarters did not receive any objection on Julau’s new members during the objection period from June 26 to July 17.

The party’s political bureau also vetted the list of new members after being asked to do so by the central leadership council (MPP).

“On June 25, a special meeting of the MPP decided to empower the political bureau to confirm the new membership list. The list was confirmed by the political bureau on June 27 and then distributed to each branch for review and objections, which closed on July 17.

“Up until the closing date, the PKR headquarters did not receive any objection from any quarters against the new members of the Julau branch,” he said in his statement.

Fahmi’s statement also mentioned that the PKR political bureau already knew of the spike in Julau’s membership on June 12, way before the closing date of new membership applications, but did not elaborate.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is investing the spike in Julau’s membership following a report lodged by Sarawak PKR information chief Vernon Kedit.

A MACC source told The Malaysian Insight that officers have gone to Julau and interviewed several witnesses.

“We recorded their statements, including a statement from a PKR strongman in Julau, and we are looking into this claim,” a source said.

Sng is also being investigated and confirmed to the media last weekend that MACC officers raided his office. – November 8, 2018.