KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — The DAP alleged today a recent statement made by Datuk Seri Najib Razak — that the party was forced to hold fresh polls due to the absence of eligible delegates — proves its claim of an anti-DAP conspiracy.

DAP parliamentary whip Anthony Loke (picture) said the prime minister’s statement could be taken as the reason behind the Registrar of Societies’ (RoS) unexplained decision to “coerce” the DAP into conducting a re-election of its central executive committee members.

“The statement made by Najib is seen as the excuse by RoS to instruct the DAP into holding re-election even though the RoS had never given any written explanation in their letter to the DAP secretary-general.

“I would like to state the excuse is a concocted defect that is baseless and is part of a continuous lie repeated by the RoS and used as a weapon to punish the DAP,” Loke, who is also the party’s Seremban MP, told a press conference at the party’s headquarters here.

State-owned Utusan Malaysia had on Friday quoted Najib as accusing the predominantly Chinese party of lacking democratic credentials as it had intentionally left out 753 delegates from voting at the party polls in December last year.

Loke, however, said the numbers stated are actually of those who failed to attend the congress for their own reasons.

“It is a lie. If he (Najib) wants to sue me go ahead. He is a liar,” Loke charged.

According to Loke, the party’s constitution requires the central leadership to notify all delegates of the party’s congress and this was duly done with proof of notification receipts, including signatures and postage papers, provided to the media.

The Seremban MP noted that all the evidence was available for the perusal of the RoS but the body has not made any request for the papers despite launching what he described as a politically-motivated probe on the party’s election process.

“They never asked for the papers. It’s here. But they can still rectify what they’ve done,” he said.

On January 4, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng revealed that an internal audit showed errors in the tabulation of votes from the December 15, 2012 party elections that he said were caused by a technical glitch when the results were transferred to a computer using the Microsoft Excel programme.

The amendments resulted in Lim’s political secretary, Zairil Khir Johari, moving up from 39th position to 20th ― the last elected position in the party’s CEC.

The party had until Wednesday refused to comply with the RoS directive, saying it did not justify its order beyond saying it was “dissatisfied” with the party’s explanations.

Citing fear of deregistration and saying it was almost certain of it if the party was to challenged to directive, the party’s leadership subsequently caved in and said it will hold fresh polls.