Nomination forms of candidates vying for various elected posts in Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) from most of the branches have already come in with the rest expected to arrive before nomination closes on Saturday.

The three-member credentials committee will then go through the nominations and make an announcement when they have been tallied at the end of the day.

Under the party constitution, nomination closes two weeks before the triennial delegates conference (TDC). The forthcoming one is scheduled on July 26-27.

All eyes are on the nomination for the party's two top posts - president and deputy president.

Daniel Tajem, who recently moved up to become party president after Leo Moggie abruptly announced his resignation, is going for the No 1 post and he has teamed up with the party's treasurer-general and Julau member of parliament Joseph Salang, who is going for the No 2 post.

Former information chief and state minister of social development Dr James Masing is also aspiring for the president's post and his running-mate for the deputy presidency is businessman Sng Chee Hua ( photo ).

Getting tougher

It has become increasingly clear that victory for the Masing-Sng alliance is becoming elusive, if the nomination of candidates already in are anything to go by.

"It is extremely doubtful that the duo (Masing and Sng) will be able to secure enough nominations even to contest," a well-informed source told malaysiakini.

The Masing faction has already sensed what is likely to come.

One of the party's supreme council member Sidi Munan aligned to the faction cried foul in Malaysian Today , a local English tabloid, for what he described as the exclusion of many branches claimed to be supporting them.

The party headquarters had said the Masing faction had made it difficult for themselves and others because they had chosen to send their own list of branches with their reports and annual returns direct to the office of the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

Although they had also left a similar set with the party headquarters, they had left specific instructions that the boxes or files containing the annual returns of their branches should not be opened without the presence of their witnesses. The boxes were thus never opened.

Munan said: "The (rumoured) disqualification of (the) 175 branches would not and could not be accepted."

'Penalised' branch

PBDS secretary-general Stanley Ajang ( photo ) declined to comment on Sidi's statement, saying that all the issues brought up were under the purview of the credentials committee, whose chairperson is Dr Jawie Masing, a veteran party leader known for his integrity and fairness.

Ajang, however, told malaysiakini that his own branch in Belaga had been "penalised" because of what the Masing-Sng faction had done in keeping the reports and annual returns of branches under lock and key in boxes left at party headquarters.

"I even attended the branch meeting. The branch is supporting me. But someone else took the initiative to file the reports and annual returns. Now the branch cannot even attend because of what they did," he added.

The big question most observers ask now is what action the Masing-Sng faction will take when the credentials committee reveal the result of the nominations from branches.

If the group fail to secure the minimum number of nominations, will they and their supporters boycott the TDC?

Or will they, based on earlier report, go their separate ways, with the support they claim they have from more than 170 branches, set up their own supreme council and call for their own TDC?

The direction that the Masing-Sng faction will only become clearer after July 12.

Disciplinary action

Meanwhile, the party's recently-reactivated disciplinary committee, chaired by the Ngemah state assemblyperson Gabriel Adit, who is also a nephew of Leo Moggie ( photo ), said it would not recommend the expulsion of Masing from the party "unless he wants to expel himself".

He was responding to comments by various faction leaders aligned to Masing who had claimed that show-cause letters had been sent out on why action should not be taken against them by the disciplinary committee for their recent conduct and behaviour as party members.

Adit denied ever sending such letters out.

But Adit did not, however, rule out the suspension of Masing as a member "if there is enough evidence for such action to be taken against him" as well as his supporters.