MACC investigating alleged vote buying in PKR polls
KUCHING: A storm is brewing over irregularities involving alleged fake membership registration at the Julau branch of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) that may rock the 20-year-old party like a hurricane.
PKR Sarawak information chief Vernon Aji Kedit told reporters yesterday that he had handed over incontrovertible evidence that vote buying occurred on Saturday (Nov 10) in Julau, adding to the mountain of evidence already available that fraud and various criminalities have taken place.
“In this tiny thumb drive is explosive and shocking evidence that blatant and unbridled corruption occurred rampantly in Julau on the 10th of November. The details are sickening and the modus operandi disgusting, to say the least.
“We thank, honour and praise the brave people of Julau for coming forward and stepping up to expose these corrupt practices which are abhorrent to the Rule of Law and an outright mockery of what our party stands for,” said Vernon, who is also Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak communication director.
Vernon revealed that this is the second time he lodged a report to MACC Sarawak.
“I am here this morning to lodge a second report with the MACC and hand over this new evidence which is the logical culmination of the carefully engineered and orchestrated scheme to intentionally manipulate our party’s election process and outcome,” he emphasised.
Meanwhile, the graft busters, MACC Sarawak, pledged that they will leave no stone unturned in investigating the corruption allegation during the PKR election in Sarawak.
“I will use my full force, Sarawak team,” MACC Sarawak director (deputy commissioner) Razim Mohd Noor told The Borneo Post.
Razim confirmed that his office received a report and evidence submitted by Vernon to MACC Sarawak yesterday.
“The investigation is ongoing. Yes (We received the complaint and evident) this morning,” he confirmed.
Razim stressed that the information channelled by PKR Sarawak will be treated as supporting information to the case that they are currently investigating.
“We consider this as additional information,” he said, confirming that a staff from PKR Julau office was interrogated after MACC received the first report from PKR Sarawak recently.
Razim also confirmed that MACC was monitoring PKR election in Julau closely, and revealed that the investigation team comprised local Sarawakbased MACC officers.
“We are reporting to headquarters every day,” he said on the progress of the investigation.
Razim said they temporarily halted their investigation last week to give room to PKR Sarawak to conduct the party election.
“Yes. We (temporarily) held (back) our action last week to give way to party election. We will continue,” he explained.
To recap, PKR Julau courted controversy after its membership shot up from 603 on June 26 to 13,000 the following day.
The first report lodged by Vernon to MACC on October 25 centred on the “irregularities and illegalities” in the Julau branch as outlined in his statutory declaration (SD) dated Oct 17.
The SD stated that 1,310 individuals were registered without their knowledge or consent as they never intended to join the party, 65 were reregistered although they were already members and 71 registered twice in different branches.
On November 3, MACC interrogated two PKR staff over alleged registration of phantom voters. One of them is based in PKR headquarters, while the other is at PKR Julau office.