All eyes will be on the special committee set up to look into the details of the MCA fresh polls when it holds its maiden meeting next week.

Party insiders said the meeting, scheduled for Monday morning at the party headquarters, would be able to give an early indication of when the fresh polls would be held and whether the elections would be restricted to the central committee (CC) or include the Youth and Wanita wings as well.

"I mean, if they can come to any agreement. If not, then they might have to hold more meetings to discuss the matter as they have been given two weeks by the CC to come up with recommendations," a party insider told Bernama .

NONE A CC meeting on Wednesday chaired by party deputy president Dr Chua Soi Lek postponed to a date to be set later the MCA annual general meeting (AGM) scheduled for tomorrow and formed the special committee to look into the fresh elections. The special committee is headed by Chua.

There is talk that the faction led by vice-president Liow Tiong Lai is still pressing for the fresh polls to be held within 60 days from Nov 28 despite the fact that Wednesday's CC meeting did not make any reference to that.

It is said that Liow's supporters are insisting that the 60-day time frame applies even if the matter was not raised at the Wednesday meeting, and they want the special committee to look into the recommendation.

The faction headed by party president Ong Tee Keat, to whom Chua is aligned, is insisting that the fresh polls should be held in March next year at the earliest.

The special committee has also been tasked to determine if fresh elections have to be held for the Youth and Wanita wings, as requested by the Ong-Dr Chua faction.

However, Liow's faction, which also includes Youth chief Dr Wee Ka Siong and Wanita chief Chew Mei Fun, has rejected such a suggestion as it feels the polls should be limited to the CC because the leadership crisis is at that level.

Definition of ‘fresh polls’

However, according to a party source, the special committee will first have to define what it means by "fresh polls".

It also needs to sort out some issues, such as whether the fresh polls would mean that the office-bearers will have a fresh term or whether the newly-elected office-bearers will serve out the current term, which ends in 2011.

The committee also has to decide whether the "fresh polls" would automatically be considered as a "new term", which would have an impact on the office-bearers as the current term's limit is three years.

"There is also the question of how to synchronise the terms of all the three main bodies when the fresh elections are held. If it (fresh elections) is only for the CC, then you have different terms for the Youth and Wanita wings and a different term for the central delegates.

"All this while, we have had fresh elections every three years, where our terms are for the same period," said the source.

The source said that even if the special committee were to come to an agreement on the timing and the mechanism of the fresh polls, there is yet another hurdle as the polls can only be held after the resignation of 20 of the 30 elected CC members.

"The issue here is that not all the CC members are willing to resign. So, if you do not have the 20 CC members resigning, how do you force an election?" the source said.

The party constitution stipulates that two-thirds of the elected CC members must first agree to resign before fresh polls can be held.

Liow's faction has said that it has secured 13 undated resignation letters and only needs seven more to fulfill the two-third's requirement.

The special committee has two weeks to report its findings to the CC, at the next CC meeting, the date for which has yet to be set.

The special committee includes secretary-general Wong Foon Meng, Liow and the three other vice-presidents - Kong Cho Ha, Dr Ng Yen Yen and Tan Kok Hong, and Youth chief Wee and Wanita head Chew.

Four CC members - Tan Chai Ho, Gan Ping Sieu, Liew Yuen Keong and party information chief Heng Seai Kie - and legal advisor Lim Hong Seng sit on the special committee as well.