Keep out of ROS’ handling of DAP, Gobind tells Zahid

DAP legal bureau chief says home minister should remember that he represents a political opponent to DAP in GE14.

PETALING JAYA: DAP has called on Ahmad Zahid Hamidi not to meddle in the Registrar of Societies (RoS) affairs over the issue of fresh elections for the party, stressing that the Umno home minister represented DAP’s political foe in the 14th general election (GE14).

DAP legal bureau chairman Gobind Singh Deo said Zahid, who is also deputy prime minister, should not have a hand in any decision made by the RoS that would impact on DAP in GE14.

He said Zahid should also not put ideas into the head of the RoS ahead of the meeting DAP wanted to seek with the agency.

“He should remember that he represents our opponent in the coming general election,” Gobind, who is also Puchong MP, said in a statement today.

Zahid had earlier today warned that DAP would not be able to contest in GE14 if it failed to abide by the RoS directive.

“If they wish to contest, they need to follow RoS’ instructions,” he said.

Zahid said failure to do so would mean that a DAP member who wishes to run in GE14 but was not on the initial delegates’ list during party’s central executive committee (CEC) election in 2012 would not be able to stand under the party’s banner.

He added that he had found that DAP had a tendency to disregard instructions from the RoS, made in accordance with the party’s constitution and the Societies Act 1996.

Gobind also said Zahid’s meeting with the RoS before its director-general Mohammad Razin Abdullah had issued a statement on Friday for DAP to conduct re-election of its CEC was “questionable”.

Razin had said the re-election should be based on the list of delegates entitled to attend and vote for the CEC election on Dec 15, 2012, involving 2,576 delegates from 865 branches.

Gobind said the statement was erroneous as it implied that DAP did not use the 2012 delegate list when it actually did.

He said DAP was not afraid of having fresh party polls, adding that it is scheduled to hold its next congress early next year.

“We ask for a meeting with RoS because to us this really involves a matter of principle and precedent.

“We do not think that one should just follow directives where there is reason to believe that the directive is flawed, be it factually or otherwise.

“And we cannot allow this to become a dangerous precedent as it would put societies in limbo and at the mercy of the RoS in future.”

Gobind also refuted media reports that he said suggested RoS had earlier advised the party to conduct the re-election at a special congress.

He said there was no such advice in the RoS’ letter dated July 30, 2013 to DAP.

“All it said is that we were required to hold a re-election based on the 2012 delegates’ list in accordance with our constitution, which we did on Sept 29, 2013,” he said. - FMT