ROS & NAJIB FALL ON THEIR OWN EVIL SWORDS: GUAN ENG, KIT SIANG GET TO EXTEND THEIR TERMS IN DAP’S CEC AS ORIGINAL CANDIDATES LIST CANNOT BE CHANGED

DAP supremoes Lim Guan Eng and Lim Kit Siang will contest in the central executive committee (CEC) re-elections on November 12, ignoring calls to quit made by a former party member.

John Lau Tiang Hua, a representative from Grant Thornton, a United States-based independent audit firm, said the party cannot drop any name from the 2012 list of CEC candidates as it goes against the Registrar of Society’s directive.

Grant Thornton was tasked by the RoS with monitoring the conduct of the CEC re-elections.

“You cannot change the list of candidates, you have to use the original 2012 list of candidates.  

“If you drop some names, then we are going against the RoS instructions, we can’t do that,” he said at a press conference at the DAP headquarters today.

It was reported that former Bagan Luar DAP branch chairman G. Asophan had called for DAP secretary-general Guan Eng and adviser Kit Siang to be held accountable for the 2012 elections and step down from their posts.

The RoS earlier told Grant Thornton to ensure that only the 2,576 party delegates who voted in 2012 be allowed to take part in the re-election.

CEC member Anthony Loke reiterated the registrar’s advice that there is no need to notify the candidates 10 weeks earlier, as claimed by “some people”.

“Grant Thornton sent out the notice of the special congress yesterday on October 25 to the original 2,576 delegates… so there it is more than the 14 days notification as per RoS regulations,” he said.

Loke said the re-election is the sole agenda at the special congress.

There are 62 candidates for the fresh CEC elections next month. DAP members, delegates and candidates can view the candidates at https://dds.dapmalaysia.org

The dispute started after a technical glitch caused irregularities in the vote count during the party polls on December 15, 2012.

Although the glitch was subsequently rectified, disgruntled members nevertheless filed complaints with the RoS.

This resulted in the RoS not recognising the 2012 polls and warning the party of the risk of de-registration. A CEC re-election was later held in September 2013.

The matter was thought to have been settled until director-general of RoS Mohammad Razin Abdullah in July said the appointments of the CEC membersthrough the 2013 polls were again unlawful.

To settle the matter once and for all, DAP declared it would hold another CEC re-election on November 12 at the Ideal Convention Centre Shah Alam (IDCC) at 10am.

THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT