Eight new Sabah political parties await approval
By Michael Kaung, Free Malaysia Today
KOTA KINABALU: If the number of applications to register new political parties is a guide, dissatisfaction is rife in Sabah.
Almost every month since the beginning of this year, the Registrar of Society (ROS) here has received an application to register a new party.
So far, eight different groups have applied to register a new party during the first five months this year, said ROS director Matthew Dominic Barin.
However, the applicants will have to wait for approval from Putrajaya which has the final say on new political parties ,which is outside the jurisdiction of the state ROS.
Approval for five categories of applications – political parties, environment, religion, trade and security — are controlled by the federal authorities.
According to ROS, it takes about four months to process an application.
While declining to disclose the names of the new parties whose applications are still under consideration, Matthew said the eight political party applications were among 145 applications received by ROS since the beginning of the year. A total of 87 have been vetted and registered.
Usno de-registered
Matthew also confirmed that one of the state’s oldest political parties, the United Sabah National Organisation (Usno), founded by former chief minister Mustapha Harun, is no longer in existence.
He said the registration of Usno with the ROS is invalid as it has been de-registered, he added.
Matthew also said that most of the organisations were de-registered due to their failure to submit their mandatory annual reports despite reminders.
