With the feuding factions in the troubled Sarawak National Party (Snap) showing no sign of backing down, most political observers are predicting a showdown at party's central executive committee (CEC) meeting on June 15.

Snap's embattled 80-year-old president James Wong Kim Min, now recuperating in Sydney, Australia after what has been described as a successful knee-cap operation, is expected to fly home either at the end of the month or early June to prepare for head-on clash with a rebel faction led by one of the party's vice-presidents, William Mawan, a state minister and the man likely to challenge him for the party's No 1 post next February.

According to CEC member Michael Bong, who is also Wong's brother-in-law, the party president has confirmed he will be coming back to chair the meeting.

The president has requested his group not to make unnecessary public statements and to wait for his return.

"I will know what to do when I get back," he was quoted as saying by Bong.

The issue of the CEC's action in the controversial expulsion of the party's former treasurer-general Tiong King Sing, who is also the member of parliament for Bintulu, has been overshadowed by the Mawan group's repeated calls for Wong to step down as president and for the removal of the president-appointed secretary-general Justine Jinggut.

Bong, a former senator, told malaysiakini today that Wong had requested that the date of the coming CEC meeting be fixed on June 15, almost two months after the last CEC meeting which created an uproar following Tiong's sacking from the party for party indiscipline.

Tiong has sent a letter of appeal against the CEC's decision to the party's highest decision-making body, the national council — that meets once a year — just a few days before the expiry of the 30 days as required under the party constitution.

Revote on expulsion likely

The president and his men have maintained that they had the required two-third majority to sack Tiong.

But according to observers, the group may not be able to muster the same numerical strength as one or two of the appointed CEC members previously on Wong's side may have defected to the Mawan's side.

For this reason, Bong believed that attempts are now being made by certain quarters to prevent the party from getting the Registrar of Societies' approval to the amendment to the constitution allowing the increase of appointed members from five to eight, which would guarantee the president a two-third majority.

There is speculation that the Mawan group may ask for a vote to be taken again on the Tiong issue, since they had questioned the manner in which the vote was taken in the first place at the last CEC meeting.

And the president's own group is said to be merely trying to pre-empt any such move and hence is anxious that the ROS' approval for the constitutional amendment is secured ahead of the next CEC meeting.

Yesterday, malaysiakini reported a snag in the ROS' approval of the constitutional amendment. The governing body of societies initially gave the green light to the amendment but later asked for the return of the letter of approval less than 24 hours later.