DAP threatens multiple defamation suits against Utusan

DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang said that the party’s legal bureau, headed by Gobind Singh Deo, should comb through over 200 reports and articles by the Umno-linked daily 'targeting DAP' since January.

Lim said that many of these Utusan reports have “repeated lies and falsehoods against the DAP and DAP leaders...in utter disregard of the basic canons of journalism with regard to ethics, honesty and truth.”

In particular, Lim said, the newspaper has made two “false” allegations on the DAP CEC elections during the national congress in Penang in December, namely:

• That 753 DAP delegates had not been notified of the DAP Congress and denied the right to vote for the new CEC.
• That there were 547 phantom delegates, primarily from Penang, who voted at the DAP Congress last December.

“It would be understandable if the Registrar of Societies(RoS) had directed re-election of the CEC if anyone of these two allegations had been true, but both these allegations are downright lies,” stressed Lim, referring to the most recent directive by RoS the for DAP to hold a re-election.

On Friday, DAP submitted a formal rejection to the RoS hold fresh party polls. It said the RoS had no legal power to make such an order.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng had said that RoS had failed to clearly state the reasons behind its directive and the law that empowered it to order the party hold a re-election.

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.