Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin today claimed that Umno was going against its own constitution by postponing their party elections yet again.

Muhyiddin, who was former Umno deputy president, said that the latest postponement goes against Clause 10.16 of Umno’s constitution.

Clause 10.16 states that the Umno supreme council has the right to postpone party elections but that this postponement cannot exceed 18 months from the date of the supposed elections.

Though Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said the Registrar of Societies (ROS) had approved the latest postponement, Muhyiddin questioned the legitimacy of this approval.

“Is it true what Tengku Adnan said about ROS allowing this extension? With this extension, does it not go against the law and the Umno constitution itself? The ROS should answer this,” Muhyiddin demanded at a press conference at the Bersatu headquarters in Petaling Jaya.

The ROS is only a regulatory body and does not have the power to supersede a party's constitution, he pointed out.

Umno had initially announced in 2015 that they would postpone party elections - which were supposed to be held the latest by October 2016 - by 18 months.

This meant that the party elections should be held latest by this April 19.

On Tuesday, Tengku Adnan had said that Umno was postponing their elections again, pushing it back by a year to April 19, 2019.

Double standards

Muhyiddin also juxtaposed Umno’s election postponement with the issues Bersatu faced with ROS over their annual general meeting.

“We wanted to resolve our party issues first (before we held our first general meeting) but ROS said no, we must follow the constitution.

“We could not postpone (the meeting) even though unlike Umno we didn’t ask for 18 months postponement. We just wanted to postpone it a bit.

“But the ROS did not allow us (to postpone). Do it or else they would dissolve Bersatu,” he said.

Bersatu has since taken the ROS to court (above) to seek a declaration that it should act within the law in dealing with complaints brought against the Umno splinter party.

Muhyiddin questioned why there was a difference in the way the ROS treated Umno and Bersatu even though the issues were similar.

He urged the ROS to confirm whether they have indeed approved the additional postponement for Umno.