Teoh alleged that a central committee leader had “planted” members into Selangor Gerakan without his knowledge, and urged party president Dominic Lau to investigate and resolve the matter.

Lau promptly convened a closed-door meeting and requested the attending reporters to leave the venue.

At a press conference later, he said there was a misunderstanding of the recruitment process. There had been no attempt to manipulate the membership of Selangor Gerakan, he said.

He said some of the new members had applied through the party’s online platform, bypassing the usual need to seek approval from state chiefs for each prospective member.

Lau said this issue was not unique to Selangor, having happened in Perak and Pahang – all three states in which Gerakan is seeking to expand its presence.

“The online member application process bypasses the local, state and central leaderships. We are using this system to expand our base. The new members are not ‘phantoms’ but real Malaysians with MyKads,” he said.

Lau acknowledged there were flaws in the online registration system, and pledged to solve matters of miscommunication with state chiefs.

Teoh said he accepted the explanation and hoped that state leaders would be notified in future when new members are recruited.