No problem for ROS to probe DAP, says Karpal

Despite calls by several party members for the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to investigate DAP’s central executive committee (CEC) election results, the party’s national chairperson Karpal Singh remains unperturbed, saying everything is above board.

Dismissing the possibility that the party will be de-registred, he said DAP had made a mere technical error in calculating the election results and that has since been corrected.

“There is no problem for the ROS to investigate. Everything is in order. ROS can’t de-register (DAP) just like that.

“At the most, they (ROS) can direct a fresh election on (DAP) and (ROS must) have a basis, and can’t arbitrarily decide on it,” he told reporters outside Tun HS Lee police station in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

He was asked on whether DAP will face a similar fate as Umno, which was declared unlawful by the High Court and de-registered in 1988, to which he replied in the negative.

He said that Umno had allowed unregistered branches to vote in its 1987 party election, a breach of the Societies Act 1966, whereas DAP only made an error while calculating its election results.

On Jan 14, two life members of DAP - Ladang Paroi vice-chairperson David Dass Aseerpatham and secretary Mahendran Krishnan - lodged reports with ROS over what they alleged were manipulation of the party's election results.

According to Home Minister Hishammudin Hussein, the ROS, which falls under his portfolio, will summon the duo to give further information.

There was also a protest against the result in front of DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng’s service centre yesterday, by some 45 people claiming to be disgruntled party members.