Its legal bureau chief Gobind Singh Deo said the party was still waiting for word from the RoS after it had given a reply with necessary information on July 21.
He said the DAP received the RoS’ letter on July 17 informing them that it did not recognise the CEC election in 2012 and its re-election in 2013. The letter also directed the party to hold yet another election.
“The letter set out certain conditions to be met by the DAP, including the appointment of an independent body to oversee and conduct the election,” he said.
He said the party then held an emergency CEC meeting on July 21 and responded to the RoS by naming an independent body.
“It is unfortunate, but the RoS has failed to reply to our letter until today,” he told a press conference at Parliament here today.
He said because the party needed RoS’ consent on the independent body, it could not arrange for the election even though it wanted to hold it as soon as possible.
Gobind said the party wanted to resolve the issue quickly as it was worried that it would not be able to use its party logo in the upcoming 14th general election (GE14).
“I want to ask the RoS to explain why it keeps on delaying things when it comes to the DAP,” he said.
“First, it took them four years to make a decision. Then it took them 10 days to send us a letter informing us of that decision. Now there is a delay again,” he said.
“These delays prejudice us. We cannot proceed with a re-election without a response from the RoS,” he said, urging the RoS to be professional.
“Send us a response without any more delays,” he added.
On July 7, RoS director-general Mohammad Razin Abdullah announced that the DAP needed to hold a second re-election for its 20 CEC members, as the registrar did not recognise those who were voted in during an earlier re-election on Sept 29, 2013. The original election was held on December 15, 2012.
This came about due to complaints made by DAP members who were dissatisfied with the re-election.
“RoS believes the appointment of the CEC members as well as the main position holders through that re-election, is illegal,” Razin said.
“The re-election should be based on the list of delegates entitled to attend and vote for DAP’s CEC election dated December 15, 2012, involving 2,576 delegates from 865 branches,” he said
He added that the RoS considered DAP a legitimate party and had no intentions to de-register it so far.
On July 9, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi warned that the DAP would not be able to contest in GE14 if it failed to abide by the RoS directive.
He said failure to do so would mean that a DAP member who wishes to run in GE14 but who was not on the initial delegates’ list during the CEC election in 2012, would not be able to stand under the party’s banner.