RoS warned DAP about polls four years ago, says political blogger
(The Star) – The Registrar of Societies (RoS) did not take four years to direct DAP to hold fresh polls, rather, it is the party which has yet to comply with instructions properly, said political blogger Lim Sian See.
Lim said that it was DAP’s Anthony Loke who claimed that the RoS had directed DAP to hold a re-election in an official letter dated July 30, 2013.
He added that the RoS had also warned DAP that its central executive committee (CEC) re-election on Sept 29, 2013 was not compliant, as relevant documents were not submitted to RoS on time and the minimum 10-weeks notice period had not been adhered to.
He said the RoS had cautioned DAP against equating a court ruling on Sept 27, 2013 to getting a green light to hold fresh party polls on Sept 29, 2013.
The RoS said this was in response to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng’s claim that the court decision to strike out a suit filed by A. David Dass meant that the party had the right to hold the polls via a special congress.
“Therefore, the RoS already pre-warned DAP that their re-election was already not compliant as the relevant documents were not submitted to RoS on time and the minimum 10-weeks notice period was not adhered to,” Lim said.
He also linked online news articles as proof of this.
Lim pointed out that in a news report on Sept 5, 2013 DAP had said that it would submit all the required documents to the RoS.
“I do not know whether they did eventually submit or not but what I do know is that Sept 5, 2013 is less than the required 10 weeks from the Sept 29, 2013 re-election day,” the blogger said.
He said questions must be asked as to why DAP held the Sept 29, 2013 re-election despite being forewarned by the RoS that it would not be valid and against the DAP’s constitution.
In a statement on Friday the RoS had said that it had no intention of deregistering DAP, but ordered the party to hold fresh elections for its CEC members.
Following complaints from DAP members, RoS had deemed that the re-election in 2013 was not carried out based on the list of delegates authorised to attend and vote in the earlier polls held on Dec 15, 2012.
The polls in 2012 had involved 2,576 delegates from 865 branches.
