ROS orders DAP to hold fresh polls

The Registrar of Societies in its letter only says it is dissatisfied with the party explanation over the counting mistake they committed in the party polls, which Lim Guan Eng says is an act of double standard.

PETALING JAYA: The DAP has received a formal letter from the Registrar of Societies (ROS) yesterday demanding them to hold fresh party polls, a directive which is expected to anger the party.

In the one-paragraph letter dated yesterday, ROS says that they are dissatisfied with the explanation given by the party over the counting mistake they committed in the party polls last December, and instructed them to hold a fresh poll in accordance to its party constitution.

The letter was received by the party at 4.48pm yesterday, said party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

“ROS only stated that they were not satisfied with DAP’s explanations, without stating the grounds and the reasons why,” said Lim.

“DAP had provided a full explanations and co-operated fully with the RoS. All supporting documents were given to prove that the party elections in December last year was conducted properly, legally and democratically.
“Such a brief letter by R0S stating the directive but not the reasons why as well as not providing evidence that supports the R0S decision is most unprofessional, flagrant misuse of their exercise of power resulting in a great injustice to the DAP.

“Where is natural justice if an organisation or an individual is condemned or punished without knowing the reasons and what are the facts against him?” Lim said in a statement today.
DAP would announce its next course of action after an emergency central executive committee (CEC) meeting tonight.

The DAP election controversy first emerged when the party openly admitted early this year that a mistake had been committed by the party’s returning officer when transferring the tabulated votes for several candidate using Microsoft Excel.

The amended results saw Lim’s political secretary, Zairil Khir Johari, moving up from the 39th position to 20th – the last spot in the CEC.

However, since Zairil was already appointed to the CEC, both him and the person he replaced – Vincent Wu – were retained in the CEC.

“When this error was discovered, this was admitted to and rectified by the party voluntarily without being exposed by any outside parties. The party is now punished for refusing to cover-up mistakes, and for being both honest and truthful,” Lim said today.

The Penang chief minister also blamed Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for being the mastermind behind the ROS’ directive, saying that it is a clear act of political victimization by the DAP’s political opponent.

“Malaysians can only conclude that R0S has already made a subjective political decision in favour of BN to pre-judge the whole issue to “fix up” the DAP, without due regard for facts and rules.

“That this was a political decision was clearly emphasised by the premature announcement made by Datuk Ahmad two days ago during the R0S buka puasa event in Putra Jaya when R0S had not even prepared the letter.

Lim also said Ahmad Zahid practices double-standards in not demanding for a fresh general elections when the Elections Commission never made any correction with the indelible ink fiasco, but yet demanding the DAP to conduct party re-elections when the party had already rectified the mistake in the results.