The MCA saga witnessed another twist today with sacked legal bureau chief Leong Tang Chong claiming that the Registrar of Societies (ROS) did not confirm Dr Chua Soi Lek as the rightful deputy president of the crisis-plagued party.

azlan Stopping short of saying that ROS was misled, he explained: "ROS didn't confirm. It only said that based on the information supplied by Chua, it was of the view that the post of deputy president is not vacant."

"They (CC members) did not know the contents of the letter from Chua to the ROS. I believe that the CC has been misled by party president Ong Tee Keat," he said.

Liow has written to ROS

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Leong also revealed that Liow Tiong Lai sent a letter ( left ) to the ROS yesterday to provide his side of the story.

"We hope that the ROS will have a more balanced view after this," he said.

Liow, who is also health minister, was forced to vacate the deputy president post only after 19 days, following Chua's reinstatement based on the ROS letter.

Meanwhile, Leong also said that the party president also sent a letter to the ROS after the CC meeting despite the committee deciding not to refer the matter to the ROS.

"This is against the decision made by the CC," he said.

When asked about the contents of Ong's letter, he said: "I do not know as that letter was never made available to us. I supposed it is to seek clarification."

"Whatever it is, he should not have written to the ROS because the CC made a decision not to refer (the party matters) to the ROS," he added.

Challenges successor to a debate

Leong ( left ), who is acting as Li NONE ow's legal advisor, said that he had advised the CC to appoint Liow as deputy president under Article 23 and 40 of the party constitution due to Chua's non-functional position following his four-year suspension.

"More than two third of the CC took my advice and appointed Liow.

"As far as the law is concerned, Chua was reinstated as a member but not restored as deputy president. He is still suspended as deputy president," he said.

Chua was sacked as deputy president on Aug 26 but the CC commuted the sacking to a four-year suspension.

Meanwhile, Leong challenged MCA's new legal bureau chief Lim Hong Sang to an open debate on the resolutions for the second extraordinary general meeting (EGM) being pushed for by Liow's faction.

"I want him to show me which provisions under the constitution show that the resolutions are unconstitutional or illegal.

"If he is afraid to accept the challenge, then he should stop talking nonsense. Do not say this is unconstitutional or that is illegal and confuse the people," he said.

The EGM was petitioned by 16 CC members aligned to Liow following his removal from the post.