PKR leaders in the party’s political bureau did not object when the membership at the Julau division surged to 13,000 earlier this year after Pakatan Harapan took Putrajaya, said PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

The division in Sarawak is faced with claims of membership irregularities, as its members go to the party polls today to vote for their choice of local and central PKR leaders.

“The party’s central leadership council and political bureau have the authority to approve or reject membership applications.

“Who are the leaders in the bureau? Anwar Ibrahim, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Azmin Ali, Nurul Izzah, Rafizi Ramli, Shamsul Iskandar, Zuraida Kamaruddin, Sivarasa Rasiah, Tian Chua, myself, and many others,” he said, naming top leaders from the incoming president to the vice-presidents of the party.

“It was not the secretary-general who approved the new members. The secretary-general only issues circulars.

“To people who are now saying this and that, you are also in the political bureau. We approved the memberships together.

“There was also a timeframe for objections to be filed against the applications. Were there any filed in relation to Julau before the July 17 deadline? None. Without any, how could we have studied the 13,000 applications?” Saifuddin said to reporters after attending SK Sungai Nibong’s prize-giving ceremony in Penang today.

His comments came as party deputy president Azmin reportedly criticised the lack of transparency in the ongoing party polls, especially in the Julau division.

The division had only about 600 members, but the membership surged to over 13,000 within a day in June.

Saifuddin said the membership applications from Julau were submitted to party headquarters on June 12 before the deadline.

He explained the huge increase in the division’s membership by pointing out that the party’s overall membership increased drastically after PH won the federal government on May 9.

From April 1999 until May 9 this year, PKR had a membership of 560,000. But after the successful 14th general election, PKR’s membership increased by some 400,000 as of June.

“The membership increased to over 900,000 in about a month,” Saifuddin said.

“But applications are subject to objections within the period allowed. If they know the person is non-existent or has died, or has criminal record, they can object.

“After the objections, the membership of the party went to 842,000 only,” he said.

Saifuddin said it was true that Julau only had some 600 members, but that changed when Larry Sng won the parliamentary seat on May 9.

“He was an independent candidate who went up against Joseph Salang, a deputy minister from Barisan Nasional; and he won. Surely he (Sng) has his strengths.

“And Julau’s community are longhouse folk. One longhouse may have 30 or even 100 families. One family may have five people, so it means 500 people share the same address.

“After the general election, Sng joined PKR and brought his supporters with him. Many are longhouse folk. If Sng didn’t know these people, he would not have won the parliamentary seat,” he said.

It was reported that Sng is now being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission over allegations of phantom members in Julau. – November 10, 2018.