The Registrar of Societies and Umno should clarify whether all Umno branches have been automatically de-registered as of today as they have not held their elections following the 18-month extension for them to do so which expired yesterday.
This was raised by Pakatan Harapan secretariat Saifuddin Abdullah in agreeing with lawyer Mohd Haniff Khatri Abdulla who questioned this last night.
"Umno cannot extend elections for its branches beyond 18 months. The extension lapsed yesterday for the branches. Hence, the ROS cannot grant another extension.
"I feel there is a carelessness in Umno's management when they decided to postpone their supreme council elections (to later this year).
“I myself asked when the supreme council made the decision to postpone the elections and expected the general election to be called early then," Saifuddin told Malaysiakini.
Umno elections are held every three years but under the party constitution, this could be postponed for 18 months.
After the Umno branch elections, the divisional elections are held and this would be followed by elections for the supreme council posts.
Haniff (below) had posted on social media the possibility of an Umno constitutional crisis following the Umno branches being de-registered after the deadline to hold their elections lapsed yesterday.
The lawyer - who has appeared for former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in several cases – posited that if his calculations were correct, Najib cannot be elected Umno president by April 19 and lead the party in the general election.
No more extensions
He said according to an Umno Online report dated May 31, 2013, all Umno branches are to hold their elections between July 15 and Aug 31, 2013.
"This means that according to Article 18.2 of the Umno constitution in paragraph 3 (c), the branch elections should have been held at the latest by Aug 31, 2016,” he added.
However, he said Najib as party president announced on June 26, 2015, that party elections scheduled for 2016 would be delayed by 18 months.
Hence, if one were to count from the Aug 31, 2016, deadline and then add 18 months, the final date would be Feb 28, 2018, which was yesterday, pointed out Haniff.
Haniff also disagreed with Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor who in a statement dated two days ago said that party elections would be held on April 19, 2019. This after getting the approval from the ROS.
The lawyer said according to the law, the ROS cannot grant further extensions for the branches to hold their elections.
"This is in violation of Article 10.16 of the Umno constitution and the ROS has no power to grant further extensions or disregard this provision in the Umno constitution," he said.
Hence, he questioned Umno and ROS on the provision to provide such an extension until 2019. -Mkini
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