KUCHING: PKR secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution (pic) has been urged to act on Sarawak PKR's objections over the alleged dubious registration of members in the Julau branch.
State PKR secretary Nicholas Bawin said the objections were submitted by Julau branch chief Semana Sawang on Aug 18 and by himself on Sept 10.
"We are very disappointed that the secretary-general did not see fit to officially or unofficially acknowledge or respond to these two written objections," he said in a statement on Tuesday (Oct 23).
Bawin was commenting on a Malaysiakini story on Tuesday quoting Saifuddin as saying that all membership lists are final and cannot be amended as the objection period had ended.
"We assume the secretary-general may be referring to the statutory declaration (SD) by Sarawak PKR information chief Vernon Kedit dated Oct 17, which is clearly past the objection period.
"However, we would like to draw the secretary-general's attention to the two objections made within the stipulated period," he said.
Bawin said the SD contained evidence in support of Semana's earlier objection.
"These are serious allegations which a secretary-general of any political party cannot ignore.
"The secretary-general must act on the objection by Semana. This is a blatant dereliction of duties by the secretary-general for not acting on the serious allegations brought up officially by Sarawak PKR," he said.
He added that the state PKR submitted its objections to raise the red flag on the sudden increase in membership in Julau, from 603 members on June 26 to 13,000 a day later.
The SD stated that 1,310 individuals were registered without their knowledge or consent as they never intended to join the party, 65 were re-registered although they were already members and 71 registered twice in different branches.
"Such dubious registration of members could lead to the very possible breach of the Data Protection Act if data theft and fraud are found to have taken place," Bawin said.
He warned that in the circumstances, any complaints to the Registrar of Societies or challenges on the irregularities in court could be detrimental to PKR and the Pakatan Harapan government.
"We must, therefore, recommend to the party’s central leadership and political bureau to exercise caution in their deliberation to resolve the rampant irregularities and illegalities alleged," he said.
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