ROS invalidates DAP CEC, but no letter yet

DAP is up in arms over Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announcing the Registrar of Societies' (ROS) decision to order to the party to invalidate its central executive committee (CEC) election before ROS could inform them in writing.

Ahmad Zahid made the announcement yesterday at a breaking of fast function in Putrajaya, but the ROS' letter to DAP had yet to be finalised as of this morning, when CEC member Anthony Loke (right) went to the ROS headquarters to seek clarification.

"We have yet to receive any notice in black and white. We only came to know of this through the newspaper," he said.

Loke refused further comment, apart from revealing that the matter would be deliberated by the CEC tomorrow night.

According to Sin Chew Daily, Ahmad Zahid had told reporters that the ROS was not satisfied with the party's explanation about problems that cropped up during the CEC election.

Ahmad Zahid also stressed that he did not interfere with the ROS' decision.

ROS letter to be sent out

At the same function, ROS director Abdul Rahman Othman said that DAP must conduct the CEC election upon receipt of its written instructions.

In January, DAP suffered an embarrassing blow after the party had admitted that a minor spreadsheet error had caused some problems to the tabulation of the CEC election results.

The error only affected two individuals - little known Vincent Wu Him Ven and Zairil Khir Johari, who has a higher profile as he is the aide to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

However, the matter was only rectified a month later, with Zairil officially making it as one of 20 elected CEC members and not Wu.

This led to speculation that the results were manipulated to pave Zairil's entry into the CEC, as the sole elected Malay representative.

At the time, party officials said that they had to reveal the error, in the interest of transparency, despite the guaranteed embarrassment and speculation that would result.