RoS insists DAP operate with last year’s CEC pending full report on recent election

The previous DAP central executive committee (CEC) can continue to manage the party until the Registrar of Societies (RoS) has received a complete report on the election of its new office bearers at a special congress in September.

RoS deputy director-general Alias Mamat said the day-to-day affairs of the party would not be disrupted.

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

He was responding to a statement by DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke that the RoS had refused to acknowledge the election of office bearers on September 29.

Former RoS director-general Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman had on July 30, demanded the DAP hold a fresh CEC election as he was not satisfied with the “technical glitch” explanation provided.

There was controversy in the party's last CEC election on December 16 last year when party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng's then-political secretary Zairil Khir Johari obtained 803 votes after a re-calculation, as opposed to 305 during the initial count.

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

Karpal Singh is the national chairman, Lim retained his position while Fong Kiu Lun was returned as treasurer.

Loke said in a letter to Lim, the RoS advised the secretary-general to inform members of the CEC not to make any decisions on behalf of the party until it had completed its investigation into the re-election.

The letter further stated that DAP would be informed of its decision after investigations were completed and after the party had furnished it with four sets of documents.

Karpal accused the RoS of acting beyond his powers under the Societies Act 1966.

Karpal, who has been handling the party's legal matters for more than 40 years, said the submission of documents was merely a formality and the newly-elected office bearers could perform their functions uninterrupted.

"If the Ros is unhappy, it has to issue a show cause and give the CEC a chance to explain," he said.

Karpal said any directive to democratically-elected office bearers to stop performing their functions was illegal and illogical.

"If this is the case, no office bearers of political parties can smoothly administer their duties until having obtained clearance from the RoS.

"We will not sit back because it is a serious and wrong precedent. The party will act, including going to court to challenge this," he said.

Karpal said he hoped that there was no political interference in pushing the RoS to act in this unusual fashion.