Zulfikar (third right) with other Umno Kota Kinabalu division chiefs after lodging the report at the RoS office.
KOTA KINABALU (Aug 22): Around 70 Umno Kota Kinabalu branches comprising some 10,000 members have lodged a report to the Registrar of Societies (RoS) urging them to investigate alleged hanky-panky during the division’s recent party elections.
Their spokesperson, Dr Zulfikar Zulkifli, claimed that many branch members have been transferred to other branches without their knowledge.
Zulfikar said this predicament had spoiled their responsibility as party members as it had caused them to be unable to vote in the division elections.
He said another issue was the number of candidates they submitted for the July 1 and 2 elections were altered, with some candidates transferred or dropped.
Zulfikar said for example, a branch meeting had decided on five candidates to field for the election but the official list showed only three.
He said despite them lodging reports to the central and state Umno leadership, no action had been taken to remedy the problem so far.
“We are urging the RoS to investigate this matter immediately as I believe that it is a criminal offense and we want to identify the perpetrator.
“I am not sure whether this is only the tip of the iceberg but regardless, this matter needs serious attention,” he told reporters after lodging the report at the RoS office here on Monday.
Zulfikar said members from other Umno branches have told him that the same issue is happening in their branches, but the legibility of this information is yet to be verified.
“I want to clarify that this issue does not affect my stance on the party. I only want to ensure that the problems can be fixed so we can focus on fighting for the people.
“We are not asking for special treatment. We just want the division re-election to be done fairly, according to the rules and law of our country,” he said.