KUALA LUMPUR: Umno has a nationwide membership of 3.2 million, its secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa said today.
He said that after cleaning up the 73-year-old party’s membership registration between Dec 2018 to February this year, it was found that only 2 per cent of its formerly registered 3.6 million members had jumped ship to other political parties.
“Some of them had no strength of character and willpower to go through our defeat. Some (party members) had even sold out during the general elections, hence we did the (cleaning) exercise.
“Another four per cent had died and there were also a number of members from opposing parties.
“All their names were removed from the list,” said Annuar during the opening of the Umno General Assembly at the Putra World Trade Centre here, this morning.
He said that after the cleaning-up process, the party still has 3,292,667 members, with 22,156 active branches in 199 divisions nationwide, as of Thursday.
The Ketereh MP also claimed that Umno had registered 28,000 new members through membership drives and that the number is growing monthly.
He added that its online campaign had also led to 11,363 new applications over the last three months.
Annuar also said that Umno’s 16,953 branches and 199 divisions had conducted their general meetings this year in higher spirits, compared to last year.
Since Barisan Nasional’s historic defeat in the last general election, Umno, which is considered to be the lynchpin of the opposition coalition, was widely seen as a sinking ship.
This was amidst reports of a mass migration of party members, including party leaders switching sides to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia(Bersatu) in the months following the 14th general election (GE14).
Sabah Umno, in particular, found itself crippled by the exodus of almost all its division chiefs in December, leaving Kinabatangan division chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin the sole Umno leader in the state. Five MPs, nine state assemblymen and two senators from Sabah Umno had quit the party then.
On March 15, eight Sabah Umno leaders, including six elected representatives, received their Bersatu membership cards from its chairman, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Meanwhile, Annuar said that the blueprint for the 15th general election is being prepared and this would be included in the Muafakat Nasional’s Action plan with Pas.