Ex-Utusan journalist wants in on fresh DAP election

Former Utusan Malaysia journalist Amran Ahmad has announced plans to contest for a central executive committee (CEC) position in DAP if the party goes ahead with a re-election.

Amran (centre in photo), son of former DAP vice-chairperson Ahmad Nor, said he hoped to garner support from DAP members to continue his father's legacy.

"If the son of a former Umno leader Zairil Khir Johari can garner 803 votes, I, as the son of a former DAP leader should be able to garner the needed votes to sit on the party's top leadership," he said in a statement yesterday.

The Registrar of Societies (ROS) has called on DAP to hold a re-election after it botched the tallying process in its party polls in December last year.

However, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has stressed that the party will not hold a re-election until ROS explains the legal provision and reasons for the decision.

Amran was in 2009 sacked from Utusan Malaysia for allegedly tarnishing the Umno-owned daily's reputation in the course of his union activities as president of the National Union for Journalist.

His father, Ahmad, was the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) president and Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) deputy president before becoming DAP vice-chairperson.

Ahmad is a first Malay in DAP to become an MP, winning the parliamentary constituency Bayan Baru in 1990.