MCA central committee members aligned to vice-president Liow Tiong Lai have vowed to quit their posts in order to force fresh leadership polls.

According to Liow, 13 of the elected central committee members have signed undated resignation letters and are waiting for the right time to submit them to the party.

mca liow faction dinner liow tiong lai But his faction has the task of convincing another seven out of 30 elected central committee members to do the same in order have the necessary numbers - one third of the powerful CC - to force fresh polls.

Earlier today, more than 1,600 of Liow’s supporters passed a declaration at a special briefing calling on the party leadership to allow fresh polls to resolve the party crisis.

According to them, the crisis stemmed from the apparent failure of the party leadership to recognise and implement the resolutions of the Oct 10 extraordinary general meeting.

Roadmap linked to DPM?

Speaking to reporters after the special briefing for party delegates at the MCA headquarters, Liow said he and his supporters hope that party elections can now be held within 60 days.

He said that once the necessary resignations are submitted, the party must hold fresh polls for the central committee within 30 days as stipulated in the party constitution.

mca liow faction briefing crowd “Our roadmap (for fresh polls) which we have drawn up has set a time frame of 60 days,” said Liow, who was flanked by the 13 central committee members aligned to him during the post-briefing press conference.

Liow reiterated that a consensus has been reached with two other factions - one led by president Ong Tee Keat and the other by deputy president Dr Chua Soi Lek - that a new party leadership election was necessary.

He insisted that a date for the fresh polls has been set and is part of their “roadmap”.

mca liow faction briefing wee ka siong speaks Details about the “roadmap” are still sketchy and Liow was unwilling to divulge whether Ong and Chua are agreeable to, or at least have been informed about, the “roadmap”.

At one point, Liow and his cohorts let out a light laughter when asked whether Ong had anything to with the “roadmap”.

“That is privileged information,” said Youth chief Wee Ka Siong ( left ), who was sitting next to Liow.

Liow said Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was heavily involved in helping MCA resolve the crisis and appealed to reporters to refer to the deputy Umno president.

Will AGM be postponed?

An immediate obstacle to Liow’s faction is the scheduled annual general meeting on Dec 5, which they hope will be put off so that fresh polls could be held in conjunction with the AGM at a later date.

mca liow faction briefing leaders pc Liow said there was no legal issues to postponing this year’s meeting to next year - resulting in two party AGMs in one year - as Umno has done it previously with the permission from the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

Yesterday, party information chief Heng Saei Kee said the party would not be postponing the Dec 4-5 AGM, and those claiming so were attempting to cause confusion.

On why party elections must be held as soon as possible, Liow said the party cannot function under current circumstances and new leaders must be elected.

Observers have noted that Liow’s faction is pushing for immediate fresh polls in order to ride on the wave of discontent against Ong.

On the other hand, Ong wants the polls to be held in the second half of next year, which will give him time to amend the party electoral system and expanding the party’s voter base beyond its 2,400 delegates.

Moves to clip president's powers