MUDA comes to Umno’s defence, says RoS must be fair

 

Syed Saddiq showing the application form for his party’s registration. The party has faced a lot of RoS bureaucracy in its attempt to get itself registered. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Umno appears to have found an unlikely sympathiser in Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s MUDA.

After the authorities ruled Umno’s decision to postpone its party elections by up to 18 months is invalid, MUDA has come to the defence of the Malay party.

MUDA said it was shocked that the Registrar of Societies (RoS) had made such a ruling despite the fact that the postponement of the Umno polls was decided some time ago and had been announced to the public.

“Coincidentally, the RoS announcement came days after Umno said it was withdrawing support for the Perikatan Nasional-led government,” said MUDA information chief Zaidel Baharuddin.

Zaidel said RoS’ decisions of late have raised questions as they seemed unreasonable and politically motivated.

This, he said, included the bureaucracy MUDA faced in getting itself registered as a political party.

“Even though Umno are our rivals, on the principle of defending the democratic rights of all Malaysians regardless of friend or foe, MUDA believes RoS must be free of political pressure and influence.

“Every decision it makes must be clearly explained and made fairly and objectively.”

Earlier today, Umno supreme council member Razlan Rafii questioned RoS’ real stand on the polls, citing two different letters from the Registrar.

The first letter, dated July 19, was received by the party on July 23. It stated that RoS “had no objections” to having the party polls postponed for 18 months.

The letter also stated that the postponement was in line with paragraph 10.16 of Umno’s constitution.

However, another letter was sent to Umno today saying that the postponement for 18 months was not valid as the term of the supreme council had ended in June. - FMT