They were offcially accepted by the party yesterday after supreme council meeting chaired by its protem president Datuk William Mawan Ikom.

Mawan said Richard's application was received 10am yesterday.

"We have received his application this morning at 10am and we have decided to convene this meeting to accept his application," he said of the meeting attended by 10 of the Supreme Council members.

He said the inclusion of Richard was part of the SPDP's move to accept more members who could contribute to the party.

With Richard Wong and Wong Judat now formally SPDP members, the party now has eight state seats and four parliamentary seat.

"With his application (Wong Judat) coming in we will have a full team of state assemblyman out of  the former SNAP," he said.

On the question of accepting the Meluan Assemblyman, Mawan said that there was no precedent being set to accept other members other than those from the BN into the State BN.

"We want to make it clear that the issue of the opposition joining BN never arise, " he said adding that Wong Judatg had applied before SPDP was accepted into the BN fold.

He explained that the party held back the announcement of Wong Judat joining SPDP out of respect for the sensitivity of the issue that may arise with the BN component parties.

Wong Judat was accepted into the SPDP fold on November 11 last year, three days after SPDP was registered by ROS.

It was claimed that technically SPDP during that time was not yet a State BN component party.

Mawan said that the two new members will make the inaugural assembly to be held on February 7 a very meningful meeting.

He also hinted, "The two gentlemen will be assuming a responsible role in the party."

Touching on the recruitment drive, Mawan said that more than 60,000 applications had been approved with 80 percent of the members from the deregistered SNAP.