Faced with new conditions for their upcoming Nov 12 polls, DAP organising secretary Anthony Loke claimed that the party is getting “special treatment” from the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

He said this because an ROS letter dated Sept 21 states that DAP must publish a formal notice on the re-election in major newspapers at least 14 days before it is held.

This is to be accompanied with a web address, where potential delegates can check their eligibility to vote in the election.

The normal practice of sending notices directly to delegates, along with notices to be published in major English, Chinese, and Tamil language newspapers, will still have to be adhered to.

“On the matter of this re-election, DAP has been given special treatment by the ROS... because such conditions had never been imposed on any political party.

“These conditions can be said to be unprecedented in the political history of this country.

“Nevertheless, DAP is prepared to cooperate, and we are forced to obey these conditions,” he told a press conference at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

Copies of the ROS’ letter had been distributed to the press. Among others, the letter signed by director-general Mohammad Razin Abdullah consents to the appointment of US-based auditing firm Grant Thornton to oversee elections and act as a returning officer.

Grant Thornton has been tasked with sending ROS copies of the notice to convene the election, ballot papers and other documents, and to ensure that there are no observers at the voting venue.

The company must also notify DAP central executive committee (CEC) candidates and delegates on the figures of notices sent, delegates present, and ballot papers prepared prior to the voting process taking place.

Once the votes are counted and the results verified, the company will announce figures on ballots issued, returned and unreturned ballots, spoilt votes, and votes for each candidate.

DAP will then submit its annual report together with minutes of the special congress, the latest CEC list, and financial statements within 60 days of the re-election being held.

The letter said Grant Thornton would also ensure only CEC candidates and 2,756 delegates from the 2012 party election are allowed to take part in the re-election, including members who had since been sacked by the party.

However, members and candidates who had since passed away or voluntarily left the party would be excluded from the list.

Loke pointed out a discrepancy in the letter, explaining that there were actually 2,576 delegates in the 2012 list. A letter dated Oct 4 was sent to the ROS to notify them of the error.

As for the final number of candidates and delegates to be notified of the re-election, Loke said this is now being vetted by Grant Thornton.

He also took the opportunity to chastise the ROS as "unprofessional" in its letter, as there was a typographical error even in the first paragraph. It erroneously stated that Mohammad had met DAP vice-president Teresa Kok and two Grant Thronton representatives on Aug 21, 2018.

Kok, who served as organising secretary during the 2012 election, said she hopes the stringent rules would help put the matter to rest.

“I hope after we follow all these detailed rules imposed by ROS, anything that is done in the re-election will be accepted and the ROS would no longer have any issues.

“It has been five years (since the last election), we are not allowed to set up new branches, and the CEC had not been recognised by the ROS. I think the ROS is being unprofessional.

“I hope this will be the last one (election), and the ROS would no longer have any issues with DAP operating as we should,” she said.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng added that the party election scheduled for March next year will not be held, since the CEC chosen in the re-election would have a fresh mandate.

“Once there is a re-election, it takes effect from then. So we appear to have somehow lost five years from 2012. Although we conducted a re-election in 2013, we somehow lost five years in 2017.

“So that five years doesn’t count. We are now going back to the future. That’s why I said it is an anomaly...Because of that (ROS) decision (that was) made four years late, bringing us five years back, as if we have to start afresh,” he said.

The election for the CEC’s 2013-2016 term was first held on Dec 15, 2012. However, there were concerns about its legitimacy due to a spreadsheet error, which prompted a re-election on Sept 29, 2013.

On July 7 this year, however, ROS announced that the 2013 re-election was also invalid, and claimed that there were qualified delegates who were not allowed to vote, and "unqualified" delegates who did.

DAP had dismissed this as "fake news," but agreed to hold the re-election to safeguard the party’s legitimacy.

The re-elections will be held at the Ideal Convention Centre (IDCC) in Shah Alam.