DAP to hold re-election, under protest

However, the party still insists that the directive from the Registrar of Societies(RoS) for this fresh polls was illegal and was making this apparent U-turn "under protest".

Chairman Karpal Singh explained the decision, reached last night at a CEC meeting, to hold fresh elections “in the larger interests of the party”.

“Despite the strong legal position of the DAP that the directive of the ROS does not have the sanctity or authority of law, to avert deregistration of party, the CEC resolved last night to hold fresh CEC elections,” he said in a statement issued this afternoon.

“The DAP had made every effort to receive from the ROS the reasons for this directive and the law upon which that directive had been based,” said Karpal.

Karpal said that DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng had a few days ago sought to meet up with the RoS to discuss the position of the party but was turned down.

Meanwhile, DAP DAP National Publicity Secretary Tony Pua described RoS as “unprofessional” and claimed that its actions points to political interference from Umno.

Pua complained that RoS was ‘denying DAP its rights’ under the law by providing a full and reasonable explanation on the order to call for fresh CEC elections.

Pua insisted that RoS had made unfounded allegations by the body that DAP has not been cooperative. In fact, he said, DAP has complied with every single request and responded to every single query by the ROS within each stipulated period.

“As stated previously, we repeat that the ROS has no powers under the Societies Act to demand fresh elections for the DAP and it has stubbornly refused to show us under which law they are able to take such actions,” said Pua.

Previously, on Aug 2, DAP rejection to the RoS hold fresh party polls. DAP insisted that RoS had no legal power to make such an order.

For nearly half a year, questions over the DAP’s legal status remained after Lim disclosed on January 4 that an internal audit showed errors in the tabulation of votes from the December 15, 2012 party elections.

The counting error was apparently caused by a "technical glitch", which resulted in the announcement that Zairil Khir Johari was actually voted into the CEC when the original results did not.

Following complaints by some members, the RoS began investigations that at one point led to fears that the party would be unable to use its logo in GE13. However, DAP was able to field its candidates under their rocket logo when RoS confirmed the validiity of DAP's appointment letters.