PUTRAJAYA: The Registrar of Societies (RoS) has ordered DAP to hold a second re-election for the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC).
RoS director-general Datuk Mohammad Razin Abdullah said the appointments of CEC members and those who hold key positions in DAP via its re-election on Sep 29, 2013 are deemed unlawful.
“Only valid and recognised CEC members can appoint the main positions, in accordance with the Societies Act 1966 and DAP’s constitution.
“The re-election was supposed to be based on the list of delegates entitled to attend and vote for the CEC election on December 15, 2012 which involved 2,576 representatives from 865 branches.
“DAP should once again hold a new CEC re-election that is legitimate and transparent to enable the representatives to elect 20 valid and recognised CEC members,” Razin said in a statement today.
The RoS had, in 2013, ordered a re-election of DAP’s CEC after it found irregularities and manipulation of votes by the party in its initial election in December 2012.
After the re-election, there were claims by some party members that they were denied the right to attend the party congress as delegates.
Razin, meanwhile, said such a move is important as the appointment of main positions in the party play an important role, as the representative have the authority to sign the appointments of candidates to represent the party in the election recognised by the Election Commission.
He said he had met with Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, to discuss the issue. The latter, he said, had suggested that whatever action taken by RoS must be based on the Act and on DAP’s constitution.
DAP, said Razin, is considered a legitimate party and RoS has no intention of de-registering it.
“RoS would like to stress that it will issue an order to DAP to hold a re-election on its new CEC to elect valid members in accordance with Societies Act 1966 and DAP constitution,” he said.
DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang had recently issued a statement that the party members should prepare for the possibility that the party might be banned and its logo disallowed in the upcoming general election.
Lim’s statement came following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s press secretary Datuk Seri Tengku Sariffuddin’s claim that the DAP did not know if it would be allowed to use its party logo in the upcoming general election as the RoS did not recognise the validity of the party’s CEC.