The Masing-Sng faction, refusing to accept last week's results returning their rivals unopposed to all elected posts in Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), are counting on the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to step in and supervise a re-run of party elections.

They have started sending in protest notes from 175 branches they say are behind them to the ROS within the last few days, with a call to the Tajem-Salang faction to organise "fresh and fair elections" based on the delegates list of the year 2000 triennial delegates conference (TDC).

A senior faction leader Dublin Unting aligned to the Masing-Sng faction told malaysiakini last night that the group had not received any reply yet from the Home Ministry secretary-general to the official complaints they made last week concerning what they alleged are constitutional irregularities committed by the rival group.

"We expect a reply sometime after the scheduled July 26-27 TDC," Dublin, who is also assistant minister of social development and urbanisation, said.

Promise to accept results

Yesterday afternoon, Dr James Masing, who leads the faction that is backed by nine of the party's 14 elected representatives, made a call for "fresh and fair elections" and promised to accept the results even if they lost, as the only way for reconciliation.

Contacted today, Daniel Tajem, who was returned unopposed as party president for a three-year term last week after nominations closed, described Masing's call as "an act of sheer desperation."

Tajem and all his supporters were returned unopposed to all 20 elected posts in the main body and all the elected posts in the women and youth wings of the party.

The Masing faction dismissed the results as a "sham", claiming that it had excluded the participation of 175 branches supporting them.

Tajem said the party had followed all constitutional requirements, had the credentials committee carefully studied all the list of party branches (181) submitted to them and the committee had duly accredited branches to qualify to nominate candidates.

According to him, the 153 branches that the CC eventually accredited did not nominate even a single candidate from the Masing-Sng faction.

Reconciliation possibility

Dublin told malaysiakini that inspite of what has happened, he still sees a possibility of reconciliation. "But this will depend a lot on what is going to happen in the run-up to the TDC on July 26-27."

"Hopefully Tajem and Masing could meet before then and discuss some form of a compromise," he said. But observers feel that a compromise is difficult as both faction leaders have taken a hardened approach on their own positions.

"We will probably not accept Tajem as president," Dublin said. According to observers, a compromise without respecting the results of last week's election nominations is unlikely to be acceptable to the Tajem-Salang faction.

Asked whether he is aware of the Chief Minister and State Barisan Nasional chairperson Abdul Taib Mahmud's views on the whole thing, Dublin said Taib would like the party to resolve its own problems without his involvement.

Bintulu gathering

Dublin said the Masing faction will go ahead with their gathering in Bintulu on July 24 where about 1600 delegates and observers from the 175 branches will be present.

"We will be all ears to the delegates' voices as to what they want us to do next," he added.

After the gathering, the delegates and observers will travel by road to Miri to welcome the Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who has been invited to declare open the new extension of Miri Airport.

This is seen largely as Masing's way of showing to the BN leadership that he enjoys a lot of support from party members throughout Sarawak.