More Keadilan members, including its candidate for Indera Kayangan in the last general elections, are expected to cross over to the ruling Barisan Nasional later this evening.

Keadilan's former by-election co-director Mej (Rtd) Mohd Shariff Abdul Razak who said this, revealed that some 40 Keadilan members will be attending a 'special function' at Perlis Menteri Besar Shahdan Kassim's residence tonight.

Among them will be the party's candidate for the last general elections, Ko Chu Liang.

"There, they will declare their intention to leave Keadilan,"said Shariff, who along with eight other Perlis Keadilan members, joined Umno last Friday saying they were disappointed with the Keadilan's struggle.

A day later the party's Perlis Youth deputy chief Syed Araniri Syed Ahmad jumped over to Umno and claimed to have brought along 300 members.

Since then, speculation has been rife that more defections were forthcoming, including those by several senior Keadilan leaders. A prominent name on this list is the party's former secretary-general, Anuar Tahir.

Shariff said that Ko had spoken to him earlier today about his intentions of quitting Keadilan.

He added many Keadilan members would quit the party soon after realising its struggle for the former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim has almost ended.

"Anwar's case was heard in the open court which later found him guilty of all charges. I accepted the court's decision.

"If the court rejects his impending appeal, then for me, the struggle for Anwar, the main reason for the formation of Keadilan, has finally ended," he said.

Sharrif said the other Keadilan leaders who had quit with him were also unhappy over not being consulted by the party's top leadership on the Indera Kayangan by-election candidate.

SMS threats

Meanwhile, Shariff said he lodged a police report today after he found burnt posters of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad strewn in his house compound in Kangar.

Apart from the posters, there were also charred Umno and BN flags.

Shariff also claimed that since his defection he has received threats via SMS over his mobile phone.

The Indera Kayangan by-election will see a straight fight between Keadilan's Khoo Yang Chong and MCA's Oui Ah Lan.

The seat fell vacant following the death of MCA's Khor Liang Tee last month. He had defeated Ko by a majority of 1,974 in 1999.

In a related matter, Bernama reported that MCA life member Dr Por Choo Thor, who Keadilan courted to be its candidate in this by-election, has pledged his support for Oui.

In a statement, Por expressed his confidence that Oui will win the election by a big majority.