BERSATU president Muhyiddin Yassin questioned whether Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor had really received a letter from the Registrar of Societies (RoS) allowing the party to delay its elections.

He also questioned if RoS had the right to allow a party to postpone its election for another year.

“As far as I’m concerned, although RoS is responsible on the registration of a party, it cannot breach the party’s constitution,” he told reporters at Bersatu headquarters in Petaling Jaya today.

On Tuesday, Tengku Adnan had said the party’s election is due by April 19 and that RoS had approved the party’s application to postpone its party elections.

Tengku Adnan said the postponement was made to ensure smooth running of the party, in line with Clause 10.15 of the party’s constitution where the election being held smoothly and the current political situation as well as the country’s general situation were taken into account.

Muhyiddin said the decision made by the Umno Supreme Council to postpone the party’s election contradicted with Clause 10.16 of the party’s constitution, where it stated that the Supreme Council has the right to postpone the election at the Supreme Council, division and branch level and it cannot be more than 18 months from the date the party’s election was supposed to be held.

Muhyiddin stated that in June 26, 2015 Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also Umno president, had postponed the party’s election which was due by October 19, 2016, which was further pushed to April 19 this year.

He highlighted that Bersatu faced a problem with RoS when it wanted to delay its annual general meeting (agm) and had given a stronger reason than what was presented by Umno.

“On July 25, 2017, Bersatu’s secretary-general had written a letter to RoS to apply for a postponement of Bersatu’s agm because the divisions had not yet reached a year of formation and the party’s branches had yet to be formed.

“These were valid reasons since Bersatu was a new party and is still in the process of completing the party’s structure,” he said adding that the application was denied.

Bersatu held their agm on December 30 last year.

“However, RoS still threatened us, claiming that Bersatu had breached the party’s constitution for not having a meeting at the division and branch levels, and the party’s registration can be canceled,” Muhyiddin said.

He added that RoS should not be biased on the matter as Umno had breached the party’s constitution as well.

“If RoS had the discretionary power to exclude Umno, therefore the same discretionary power should be applied to Bersatu as the reason given by Bersatu was more reasonable than what Umno had presented,” added Muhyiddin. – March 1, 2018.