Only nominations for branch elections held by the MIC Interim 2009 Central Working Committee (CWC) are valid, according to Acting MIC President Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.

As such, he said nominations for branch elections held by any other quarters would be deemed invalid and hence, would not be recognised.

"Nominations held by the MIC Interim 2009 CWC are valid because the committee is recognised by ROS (Registry of Societies). Nominations held by others will not be recognised.

"We are holding the nominations so that the branches will become valid. Upon completion, we will submit (the names) to ROS and they will become valid to participate in the elections at other levels," he told a press conference after submitting his nomination to contest for the post of Ujong Pasir MIC Branch chairman here today.

The nominations for MIC branch-level fresh elections are on July 10, 11 and 12, while the polling for branch elections is set for July 20 to 26.

The MIC presidential election, however, is expected to be held by end of next month.

Last Thursday, MIC national information chief from Datuk Seri G. Palanivel's faction, L. Sivasubramaniam that a total of 2,238 MIC branches had filed their nomination papers for branch elections held by the faction.

When asked about the status of nominations of members who submitted their nomination papers to both factions, Dr Subramaniam said his faction would accept the nomination papers submitted to them.

"For example, I was told that an exco in Melaka submitted his nomination form to the other faction yesterday, but submitted another form to us here today, we will accept the form he submitted here," he said.

He said nominations for branch elections were being held in 25 zones nationwide and a total of 3,195 out of 3,900 MIC branches were qualified to hold the fresh elections.

Dr Subramaniam said the nominations in Kedah, Terengganu and Kelantan went well yesterday and as for today, the nominations in Melaka, Perak and several areas in Johor were running smoothly so far.