Registrar of Societies cannot act beyond its powers against DAP, says Gobind Singh

Gobind Singh Deo says the position taken by the Registrar of Societies has serious implications. - The Malaysian Insider pic, December 18, 2013.The Registrar of Societies (RoS) cannot act beyond its powers in calling for the newly elected DAP central executive committee to refrain from making any decisions on behalf of the party, DAP's national legal bureau said today.

Its chairman Gobind Singh Deo asked the RoS to explain which law gave it the power not to recognise the newly elected members.

"This position they have taken is very serious and cannot be taken lightly. It has very far reaching consequences on DAP.

"The RoS cannot and must not act beyond its powers and any such attempt to do so would be unlawful and not binding under the law," he said in a statement today.

Gobind was commenting on the RoS's stand that it was unable to recognise the new CEC members elected in September until investigations on whether the re-election was done in accordance with the directives issued to it have been concluded.

Gobind also called on the RoS to provide DAP with the particulars of the complaints against the party which the registrar had said it was investigating.

He also said that DAP was entitled to respond to the complaints, adding that the RoS must consider the explanations provided before coming to any decision.

"Unless this is done, the RoS has no power to compel the DAP to comply with their requirements.

"And we are fully prepared to seek judicial pronouncements over the legality of RoS's conduct should the need arise," he stressed.

The RoS had sent a letter to DAP two weeks ago saying it was unable to recognise the newly elected CEC as the report sent by the party to them was too brief.

As such, the RoS had requested for further documents to ascertain if the re-election was conducted according to its directives laid out to DAP in July.

In the meantime, it called on the newly elected CEC members not to make any decisions on behalf of the party.

However, Gobind said that the report sent to the RoS over the re-election was in the usual format, which was used for similar reports by the DAP and accepted by the RoS in previous years.

As such, he added that there was no basis for the RoS to say that the report was too brief.

The result of the original CEC election held in December last year was not recognised by the RoS following claims of irregularities.

Former director-general of RoS Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman had, on July 30, demanded that DAP hold fresh CEC elections.

The party then elected new CEC members in a special congress in September.

Last week, however, deputy director-general of RoS Alias Mamat said the previous CEC could continue to manage the party until it received a complete report on the election of its new office-bearers.

"Until we certify the report on the election of the new CEC, the old committee can continue to function," Alias had said, referring to the committee that was in place prior to last December's party polls.

In both elections, almost the same line-up was elected to the CEC.