DAP’s parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang today gave ‘Father Augustus Chen’, the supposed author of the anti-DAP booklet on the party elections last December, seven days to surface.

Lim asked the Registrar of Societies (ROS) if it would reconsider its decision to ask DAP to re-elect its central executive committee (CEC) should the ‘Augustus Chen’, who DAP is claiming to be a fictional character, fail to show up.

NONE “Let us give the fictitious ‘Father Augustus Chen’ seven days to surface and prove he is not a phantom - failing which, would the Registrar of Societies reconsider his decision on a re-election for the DAP CEC?” Lim asked in a statement today.

However, Lim said, he “would not mind” if a CEC re-election were to take place as instructed by ROS.

“... but an important principle of public law is involved here, that the Registrar of Societies must have valid and reasonable grounds before directing a political party to hold party re-elections,” he said.

Last December, DAP cited a technical glitch that caused a mistabulation in counting votes for its CEC line-up, which resulted in one change to the initially announced 20-person CEC line-up.