DAP has urged the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to approve the registration of 120 branches of the party, which had submitted their registrations in the past year.

 

This follows the court case settlement between ROS and the party yesterday where ROS recognised the current DAP central executive committee (CEC) which was re-elected September last year.

 

DAP organising secretary Anthony Loke and his assistant Vincent Wu submitted the letter to the ROS at Putrajaya today, urging it to approve the registration of the branches.

 

Speaking the press before the submission, Loke said that the authority "has no reason" to delay the approval as ROS had recognised the CEC, which had approved the setting up of the

branches.

Applications frozen

According to Loke who is also MP for Seremban, DAP had submitted the applications to ROS in stages since May 29 last year but it decided to freeze the applications pending the court case.

 

He said that the number of pending new branches according to states are Kedah (4), Penang (29), Perak (29), Federal Territory (4), Negri Sembilan (5), Malacca (2), Johor (15), Pahang (4), Sarawak (3) and Sabah (6).

 

He added that these branches involved close to 10,000 DAP members who could not become central delegates to attend the party’s national congress without the green light from ROS.

 

“They cannot delay and freeze our registration applications any more. We urge ROS to respond and make clear that with the settlement of the court case between us and it, all matters related to DAP are normalised,” he stressed.

 

Loke ( right ) also commented that it was “unfair” to DAP that approvals of formation of branches were at the discretion of the ROS director-general, and could take from two weeks to two years.

 

However, he said that it was acceptable for ROS to approve the DAP applications within two months.

 

Should ROS refuse to answer DAP, Loke said, it was as good as an act of contempt for the court.

 

“If they do not respond, do not want to recognise us and keep all our branches frozen, I think this is not in the spirit of respecting the court decision,” he asserted.