THERE is “bad faith” in the Registrar of Societies’ delay in approving Pakatan Harapan’s registration, as it will benefit Umno and Barisan Nasional, Dr Mahathir said in his latest blog post.

The delay, seven months since the opposition pact submitted its application, is also proof that Putrajaya, under Prime Minister Najib Razak, does not practise the rule of law, the PH chairman said.

“It will benefit BN and Umno. There are elements of bad faith in the registrar’s action not to respond to our application. Indeed, there is no rule of law in Malaysia under Najib.”

Dr Mahathir has said before and repeated in his blog post that without its registration as a society, PH component parties could not use the pact’s symbol in the 14th general election.

“It means we have to use our individual (party) symbols. This can confuse voters.

“Parties need time to familiarise voters with the symbol. If our registration is only approved after Parliament is dissolved, there won’t be enough time for us to make preparations,” Dr Mahathir said.

PH submitted its application for registration on July 24 last year.

Dr Mahathir said PH had repeatedly trying to get an update from RoS on the status of its application, to no avail. Just two days ago the Bersatu chairman again blasted RoS for dragging its feet on the matter.

In his post today, he said although the PH leadership visited ROS twice, no official explanation was given while the chief registrar continued to make public statements instead.

“We have never received a written reply from the registrar. The reality is, till now, seven months after our application was first made, we still don’t know our status,” he wrote.

RoS director-general Surayati Ibrahim was reported to have said in November that PH’s registration was pending due to issues with Bersatu and DAP, two parties in the opposition coalition. The other two are Amanah and PKR.

Surayati said Bersatu had yet to hold an annual general meeting and DAP yet to submit a full report on the re-election of its central committee members.

Bersatu, however, had its inaugural AGM on Dec 31. – January 19, 2018.