Two members aligned to the Masing-Sng faction walked out of the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) credentials committee meeting in a huff today following a dispute over a matter concerning eligibility of branches to attend next month's triennial delegates conference.

According to party headquarters staff who witnessed the incident, the two - lawyer Clement Eddy and businessman Patrick Sibat - stormed out of the meeting room on the first floor of the party

headquarters in Jalan Wan Alwi, Kuching, at 10.55am.

It was later learnt that they left to meet with PBDS vice-president Sng Chee Hua , who is presidential aspirant Dr James Masing's running-mate for deputy president post.

But the duo returned to party headquarters and joined the meeting around 2.50pm after it was re-convened by committee chairman Dr Jawie Masing.

Malaysiakini understands that the duo had been asked by faction leader Dr James Masing, who is also state minister of social development and urbanisation, to go back to the meeting.

Eligibility to vote

Asked why he had decided to return after walking out of the meeting, Sibat told malaysiakini : "I have a job to do."

Referring to the other members of the credential committee, Sibat - who was a former political secretary to outgoing party leader Leo Moggie - said: "We are all friends. We can always agree to disagree."

The other members of the committee are Terence Temenggong and Aaron Dagang, political secretary to Moggie, and Henry Upang, who is the committee secretary but holds no voting rights.

The credentials committee's main task is to look at the list of branches supplied by party headquarters and to assess their eligibility to attend and vote in upcoming triennial delegates conference.

The party's supreme council meeting last month decided, among other things, that each branch can send three delegates to the conference.

Powerful committee

Malaysiakini understands that party headquarters officials are constantly in touch with the office of the Registrar of Societies to get all branches submitted from the party rectified and approved before the TDC, scheduled on July 26-27.

The Dayak-based party has been split into two factions, one led by long-time deputy president Daniel Tajem and the other by Masing.

The two factions are expected to field their own sets of candidates to vie for all the elected posts in the 32- member supreme council.

Both sides are claiming the support from the majority of branches eligible to vote and they have been campaigning hard on the ground.

The powerful credentials committee is to scrutinise which of some 250 branches are 'legal', and this will have bearing on the outcome of the bitter leadership struggle .