KOTA KINABALU: The Registrar of Society (ROS) will investigate complaints filed by the PKR Penampang division over alleged irregularities in the party's conduct.
PKR vice-chairman I Bernard Solibun, who lodged the complaints on Monday, said he had received a reply from ROS stating that an investigation would be initiated.
He also questioned the legality of the appointment of its current acting chief, Roland Chia, which is said to be not in accordance with the party constitution.
Solibun claimed that based on the party constitution, he should be the rightful office-bearer after its former chief Edwin Bosi left to join DAP, and not Chia, who is an appointed vice-chairman.
He said the party constitution states that the division chief must be someone who is duly elected by the members and not someone who is appointed.
Solibun's complaint comes at an inconvenient time for PKR due to its upcoming elections for the division on Sept 18. Chia is to convene the coming annual general meeting-cum-election.
Solibun said the current problem in PKR Penampang could be traced from the AGM held on March 24, 2007. Present at the occasion were Jeffrey Kitingan and several officials from the state PKR liaison office.
The AGM passed off smoothly after the two rival factions agreed to set aside their differences for the sake of the party.
However, several days later, the AGM and the election results were disputed by the camp led by its then deputy chief, Joe Sulaiman, for unknown reasons.
A complaint was subsequently lodged with the then Sabah PKR chief, Ansari Abdullah.
No quorum
A fresh AGM was then conducted on May 16, 2007, at the Donggongon Library and monitored by several officials from PKR headquarters.
Suspicions were raised when the minutes of the AGM and the election results went missing and the election results of March 24, 2007, was submitted to the ROS.
A police report was lodged last month over the files containing the minutes of the meetings that were missing from its divisional office.
Solibun also claimed that ever since Chia took over the helm of PKR Penampang from Edwin, its administration and affairs were not conducted in accordance with the party constitution.
“For example, each time he (Chia) called for a meeting, there was not enough quorum, hence there were no minutes taken, except for taking of notes by the secretary,” he claimed.
He also questioned the legality of the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) conducted by Chia in 2009, claiming that it was unconstitutional as the validity of some of the members who attended it was questionable.
Division secretary Franky Lobinjang concurred with Solibun that Chia’s appointment as the acting chief for Penampang PKR is unconstitutional and invalid.
He also claimed that Chia had sent out notices for the coming AGM without his knowledge and were only addressed to members aligned to him.
“Until today, there has been no confirmation on who the candidates are for the coming election following the recent nomination exercise.
"The list of candidates should have been prominently displayed as there was supposed to be a three-day objection period for members if any of the candidates is found to be unqualified to contest,” he said.
A four-cornered fight is looming in the divisional election with Chia facing off Innocent Makajil, Brett Chua and Darell Liking.
Chia is a dentist, Makajil is the former district chief for Penampang, Chua a businessman whose family owns and runs the CKS chain of supermarkets, while Liking is a lawyer.
Chia could not be reached at press time for comments.
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