JULAU BRANCH TO SEE AN EPIC BATTLE?
Rafizi-aligned MP says 7,000 ready to vote as Azmin’s camp cries foul over 13,000 membership figure
WITH PKR elections coming to a head soon, the fight for the deputy presidency is heating up. And while the candidates — incumbent Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali and his sole challenger, Rafizi Ramli — are not exactly at each others’ throats, their camps are certainly not pulling any punches.
Come Saturday, when branches in Sarawak have their chance to cast ballots, the eyes of many will be in Julau.
In Sarikei, Julau member of parliament Larry Sng, who has openly declared his support for Rafizi’s camp, claimed that the branch, with 13,000 members, will play “kingmaker” in the race for the party’s No. 2 post.
The branch is, indeed, one of the biggest and Sng believes that at least 7,000 members will be voting on Saturday. And he admitted that he will do all he can to get his supporters to vote.
“We will see who wins on Saturday. Let the members decide who becomes our deputy president, vice-presidents and other main posts in the party.
“With so many members (in Julau), for sure their votes will play a role in the outcome,” he said.
But in Sibu, vice-presidential candidate Zuraida Kamarudin, an Azmin supporter, kicked up a fuss over the number of members in Julau.
It is not merely the number that has Zuraida and the rest of Azmin’s camp in a tizzy, but the fact that Julau’s membership suddenly rose from 603 to 13,000 in a single day on June 27.
Zuraida has urged the PKR leadership to look into the issue and not continue to be plagued by the “denial syndrome”.
She said party leadership needed to be “brave enough” to decide on the sudden, steep rise in membership at the branch, which she said is “questionable”.
Zuraida there were claims that the branch leadership did not follow the proper process in registering new members, and there were doubts about the status of some of these new members.
She said there were seven Parti Rakyat Sarawak members who said their names were registered as PKR members in Julau.
“If there was one or two cases, it would have been acceptable as mistakes could have been made.
“But there are complaints from many people. This is something I would call a scandal, or even an organised syndicate.
“As far as I know, there is clear evidence shown. So the party leadership needs to make a decision. But if they don’t, and they decide that the party election in Julau needs to go on, then of course, we are prepared to face it,” she said.
Zuraida, who is housing and local government minister, said there was no indication that the election would be postponed.
“We have a week. We will see what the leadership’s decision is.
“They have to be ready to face the consequences. I hope there will be a meeting at central level to discuss this issue.
“This has been brought up several times to the central party leadership, but there has been no decision.
“I really hope (something is done) as this is for the good of the party... a wise and fair decision needs to be made,” she said.
It is understood that a report was lodged with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) last week, though no details have been forthcoming.
On Saturday, a team of MACC officers were said to have gone to Sng’s service centre to seek documents to facilitate investigations into the matter.