Pakatan's delayed registration. Was it an EC-ROS conspiracy?

Well, the Elections Commission (EC) is trying to cause some trouble again with the creation of more rules and sub-rules so they could give opposition parties some nightmares, particularly PKR, DAP and PAS who are now currently working under a coalition named Pakatan Rakyat.

In the recently list of rules being circulated out by the EC chairman recently, it stated that if any opposition party is contesting in an area, flags and posters of the other opposition parties who are not contesting cannot be displayed. The EC chairman was referring to the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition and blamed the PKR, DAP and PAS leaders for not being serious enough to get PR registered with the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

The EC head also added that an exception was given to Barisan Nasional (BN) where its component parties are allowed to display the flags, banners or posters of their respective parties, because the BN is an entity registered by the ROS and PR was not until today.

First, the interpretation made by the EC chairman is certainly confusing and twisting. In the electoral rules underlined by EC, it only stated that "only contesting parties are allowed to raise their flags, put up their posters and banners" and it did not mention anything which regards to the registration of any political coalition. They either got it mixed up or they may be trying to confuse the public by twisting the some facts to benefit the BN leaders.

If you based on the words stated as "only contesting parties are allowed to raise their flags, put up their posters and banners", all component parties of BN are contesting under the BN's banner, therefore, it is not Umno, MCA, MIC or Gerakan who are contesting. Isn't that so? In this case, EC has been one-sided in enforcing such rules of theirs.

Secondly, it has been publicly known that Pakatan Rakyat had submitted their application to register as a political coalition with the ROS two years ago and to-date their application was still being held for no reasons. Members of the PR secretariat has also being following up with ROS on the status of their registration but to no avail.

So, why is ROS delaying the registration of PR as a new political coalition? No reasons were given till today and the PR leaders are being left wondering what is wrong with their coalition's application because the ROS had refused to give any details pertaining to the delay. Is the delay being carefully planned and instructed by the home minister and Umno vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein? Where is he now? Can he explain? Is EC being completely blindfolded into not knowing at all that it was the ROS who had refused the PR's application for registration?

If EC is a real neutral and professional electoral organization, they should have given the ROS some pressure in order to ensure a fair fight between BN and PR if the 13th general elections were to take place sooner.

Now, can we say this is an EC-ROS conspiracy in order to give the PR some restrictions and nightmares come next general elections?