DAP national publicity secretary Ronnie Liu was elected the party's new Selangor chairperson today while former head M Manoharan was left out of the committee line-up.

Liu was voted by the 15 newly elected state committee leaders as state chairperson while leaders said to be aligned to him successfully won key leadership posts.

Among them are state deputy chairperson Tee Boon Hock, vice-chairpersons Ong Eng Siong and V Krishnan, secretary Alex Yim and treasurer Ong Chee Keng.

Liu and the other 14 state committee members were voted in by the 163 delegates (out of 205 in total) who were present this morning at the Selangor DAP state ordinary convention in Petaling Jaya.

Following the selection of the 15, the elected leaders voted among themselves to determine the state office-bearers.

'Unity list' ignored

These results are particularly unexpected in view of the line-up proposed by Manoharan on Thursday when he issued a statement urging delegates to vote for a "unity" line-up of leaders.

The Selangor leadership, which was lately marred by factional splits along the lines of those aligned to Manoharan and Liu respectively, clearly saw the latter securing the upper hand.

Of the list of incumbents in the unity list said to be aligned to Manoharan, only T Kannan was re-elected to the state committee. Another prominent leader who has successfully retained his place in the state committee is Bandar Klang state assembly person Teng Chang Khim.

Back in May, Manoharan (photo) had sacked Liu and seven others office-bearers on grounds that they had not attended committee meetings.

As a result of the dispute, the Selangor DAP committee was dissolved and temporarily replaced by an interim panel headed by Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun.

Five more leaders

Contacted later, Liu, who was nominated unopposed as chairperson, said his first task would be to initiate a healing process in order to close ranks among the Selangor leaders and members.

"There is a task to close ranks with everyone. As chairperson, I have the heaviest responsibility," he said.

Liu said he will co-opt another five state committee members, as provided by the state constitution, next week.

"I have not done this today because I want it to be done after I consult with the other leaders," he said, adding that the positions to be filled are those of the assistant treasurer, assistant secretary, assistant publicity secretary and two assistant organising secretary posts.

He declined, however, to comment if he was surprised by the results of the polls.

Both Manoharan and Teng were unavailable for comment.

No incinerator

Meanwhile, the Selangor state convention also adopted 12 resolutions, among others, calling for the Barisan Nasional government to repeal restrictive laws and to restore local government elections to deal with the problems afflicting local councils.

The convention also resolved to call on Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to withdraw his declaration on Sept 29, 2001 that Malaysia was already an Islamic state.

On education issues, Selangor DAP resolved to demand for the government to abolish the "unfair meritocracy system" for varsity admittance, and to build more vernacular schools.

Other resolutions include the party's continued opposition to the government's plan to build a multi-million ringgit incinerator in Broga and a demand for the government to allocate more resources to deal with the rising incidence of crime in the country.

The Selangor state convention also kicks off a series of state-level party elections to be held in five other states over the next three months, mainly Federal Territory, Penang, Johor, Perak, Melaka and Pahang.

Another keenly watched election would be that for Melaka which also suffered a leadership crisis earlier last year. The dispute among leaders later fizzled out after a gag order was issued by the national leadership.