RoS still investigating DAP, two years after re-elections

DAP remains under investigation over its 2013 re-election results. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, October 29, 2015.The Registrar of Societies (RoS) is still investigating DAP, nearly two years after the opposition party held its re-elections in a special congress.

In a written reply, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the investigation was ongoing as DAP had not taken the appropriate steps as recommended by RoS.

However, he did not state what those steps were.

"RoS is still conducting a thorough investigation on DAP following its re-election on September 29, 2013.

"On April 3 last year, RoS received a letter from DAP which requested for judicial review on the action taken by RoS. On September 23, 2014, DAP revoked their summons against RoS at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

"However, RoS is still continuing its investigation into DAP because the party management has yet to take the relevant actions, as advised by RoS," he told Anthony Loke (DAP-Seremban).

DAP was forced to conduct its polls on September 29, 2013 following a directive from RoS. Several disgruntled members had said the election in December 2012 was not properly conducted after the party announced that a tabulation glitch had resulted in the wrong candidate being elected to the central executive committee (CEC).

The mistake was addressed soon after.

At its re-election, delegates returned the same set of leaders to the CEC.

However, RoS refused to accept the election results, again saying that complaints had been lodged regarding the re-election. When asked by DAP, it did not furnish any details.

In January last year, DAP through its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng filed for a judicial review to quash the RoS decision to withhold recognition of its re-election results.

However, the judicial review was withdrawn nine months later after Gobind Singh Deo, who represented his party, told the court that a letter from RoS to Lim on December 6 last year was merely advisory and did not have any legal effect on its operation.

In the letter, RoS had informed Lim of its decision, advising the newly-elected CEC to refrain from making any decisions on behalf of the party while it probed complaints over the September re-election.

The party took the stand that the RoS directive was without the force of law. – October 29, 2015.