The DAP today slammed Utusan Malaysia over a renewed attempt at getting the party de-registered after the Umno-owned newspaper accused the party of having illegitimate delegates voting in its 2013 party election.
 
DAP organising chairperson Anthony Loke denied the allegation, stressing that the delegate list used in the party re-election on Sept 29, 2013 was exactly the same as the delegate list used during the first botched polls on Dec 15, 2012.
 
" Utusan Malaysia 's tactic is to repeat a lie and slander continuously in the hope that after repeating it 100 times, people would believe the wild allegation to be true.
 
"DAP will not hesitate to drag Utusan Malaysia to court again if it continues with the lies and slander on the credibility of DAP's central leadership," said Loke ( left ) in a statement this today. 
 
DAP was forced to hold a re-election after being threatened with de-registration by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) after the party admitted to a tabulation errors in the first election.
 
However, the ROS still refused to recognise the new DAP line-up, prompting DAP to take legal action and the ROS subsequently conceded on Sept 23 that it had no legal standing in refusing to acknowledge the party's leadership.
 
Following the court settlement, Loke urged the ROS to approve 120 new DAP branches which have been held in limbo when the ROS refused to recognise the party's leadership.
 
Utusan in its editorial column today accused DAP of including this 120 yet-to-be registered branches in its party election which would make the polls illegal.
 
"The 120 unregistered branches tossed around by certain irresponsible quarters is in fact the total number of branches which have been submitted to th ROS in stages since May 2013 but has yet to be approved.
 
"These branches were never involved in the re-election of Sept 29, 2013," said Loke.
 
He added that DAP had previously also submitted all the relevant reports to the ROS in complying with its investigation.
 
Loke reminded the Umno-owned daily that DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang suit against Utusan for alleging the former had manipulated the party election was ongoing and the party will not hesitate to file fresh defamation suits against the daily.