DAP hopes re-election will end years of struggle

SHAH ALAM: Lim Guan Eng hopes that its party re-election today will put an end to the years of tussle with the Registrar of Societies (RoS).
The DAP secretary-general said it was the only political party in Malaysia forced to hold three party elections in the span of five years - which were in 2012, 2013 and 2017.
He added the re-election held today to elect the party's Central Executive Committee (CEC) was conducted "under protest".
"It is as if we are in some science fiction movie with the clock turned back ... and we are now going to elect the CEC of 2012 term in 2017 when the party's term is only for three years," he said.
"Today I hope everything should be resolved, once and for all. As I said many times, we are a law abiding party but at the same we wish that no one should try to test our patience," he told delegates attending the party's special congress for the re-election at Ideal Convention Centre here.
On July 17, DAP received an official notification from RoS regarding the department's order for the party to hold a fresh re-election of its CEC.
The order was issued as RoS had neither accepted nor recognised the election held by DAP on Dec 15, 2012, and the re-election on Sept 29, 2013.
Lim pledged that the party would fight until the end if it was forced to hold another re-election by the RoS.
He added the party was confident that it could win the case if it was brought to court, but doing so would jeopardise its chance in the upcoming general election.
"We were left with no choice. This is for the party and for the rocket symbol to be able to be used in the 14th General Election," he added.
The party election today was under the supervision of audit firm Grant Thornton, with delegates attending taken from the original list in the 2012 election.
A total of 1,356 delegates attended the special congress for voting, or 53.94% attendance rate from the 2,514 eligible candidates list in 2012.
A total of 62 delegates from the original list had been disqualified for reasons such as being declared bankrupt, resigned from party or passed away.
Voting will end at 2pm today.