KUCHING, Nov 8 — Incumbent Julau PKR branch chairman Semana Sawang today questioned the party leadership as to how it reached the conclusion that there were no irregularities in the sudden spike in the branch’s membership registration.

Semana claimed that even dead people have been registered as PKR members in Julau, and that this did not seem to bother the party.

"I am not surprised. That clearance by the political bureau is to be expected,” he said when contacted by Malay Mail.

On the move by the political bureau to clean up the Julau branch’s membership list, he said such a step is pointless because voting has already taken place.

He said it should have been done before the party’s polls in Sarawak on November 10 and 11, and not after.

Earlier today, PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil said the political bureau met last night, during which secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail informed it that the membership information had been included in the central database after vetting by the bureau itself or the central election committee.

The Julau branch is under investigation after its roll went from 603 members to over 13,000 in just one day.

Last month, Sarawak PKR information chief Vernon Kedit made a statutory declaration that the new Julau PKR recruits were "not genuine, but made by stealing personal data and information without the knowledge of the owners and, therefore, not proper”.

The crisis that struck the Julau PKR division became the key controversy in the ongoing party election after several reports were lodged with the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over the alleged forgeries and money politics.

The MACC has since raided the office of Julau MP Larry Sng Wei Shien to facilitate investigations for allegedly buying thousands of votes.

Last Sunday, outgoing Wanita PKR chief Zuraida Kamaruddin said she would bring up the issue during the party’s central leadership meeting.