The three-year leadership crisis of Sarawak United People’s Party, which has threatened its registration, has now been solved with a letter from the Registrar of Societies (ROS) saying it is satisfied with the party’s reply to its show-cause letter.

“We received two letters from ROS, one is revoking the de-registration of Bekenu and Piasau branches, and the other is that the ROS is satisfied with our reply to the show-cause letter,” said SUPP President Peter Chin at a media conference last night.

The two letters from the Home Ministry were received yesterday.

The show-cause letter was issued to SUPP following complaints by a faction led by SUPP Sibu chairperson Wong Soon Koh ( left ) that the Dec 2011 party branch elections were full of “irregularities”.

The branch elections elected delegates to the party’s triennial delegates conference (TDC), which in turn elected the president and the central committee (CC) members, the party’s highest policy-making body.

Wong and his faction comprising five other state assemblyperson, namely Ranum Minda (Opar), Jerip Susil (Bengoh), Lee Kim Shin (Senadin), Francis Harden (Simanggang) and Johnichal Rayong (Engkilili), boycotted the TDC alleging irregularities in the party’s elections.

Wong himself, the Bawang Assan assemblyperson, was to challenge Chin for the top post of the party.

Chin said: “The ROS agreed to accept our explanation and therefore ROS decided not to carry on with de-registering the party.

“With the troubles over, the way is now clear to hold the TDC later this year as planned.”

Expressing hope that members would accept the ROS’ decision, Chin said that they should not have different interpretation of the 2011 party elections.

The crisis had not only undermined party unity, but had also contributed to the loss of six parliamentary seats in the 2013 general election.

SUPP, the oldest party in Sarawak, was registered 55 years ago on June 16, 1959.

Meanwhile, political observers are keenly watching whether SUPP will implement the show-cause letter issued to Wong for undermining the authority of the party when he allegedly failed to consult the party on the appointments of political secretaries, community leaders, councillors and other government-related posts.

The show-cause letter was issued last year to Wong.

It is also unclear if Wong and his faction would accept the ROS’ decision and take part in the coming party elections scheduled for Aug 23 and 24.

However, it is learnt that three of five state assemblyperson that had followed Wong would ‘defect’ to Chin’s faction in the next few days.