Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) activist S Arutchelvan has proposed that opposition parties contest under a common logo in the next general election.

He said this is amid a growing opposition field with the addition of Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and the latest splinter Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).

"The logos of Amanah and Bersatu are still not popular.

"The best way for the opposition to overcome this issue is to register with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) a coalition like BN with a common logo.

"This way, we can evaluate how sincere and professional the ROS and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi are," he said in Facebook posting.

He added for now, the ROS had no qualms approving the registration of Bersatu as announced yesterday, believed to be tactically beneficial to BN.

"I see it as a BN strategy as they believe that Bersatu will further complicate the situation in the opposition during the coming general election due to seat negotiations issues.

"The presence of Amanah has already complicated things, and with the birth of Bersatu, it will become even more complicated," said the PSM central committee member.

Bersatu is an Umno splinter party spearheaded by former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Arutchelvan pointed out that Bersatu was granted its registration rather easily compared to PSM, which had been trying to register with the ROS from the time Mahathir was prime minister.

"When Mahathir was in power, it took 10 years for PSM to be registered, with PSM being forced to take the home minister to court.

In the end, PSM was registered after BN lost two-thirds majority in the 2008 general election," he said.