KUALA LUMPUR, July 7 ― The Registrar of Societies (RoS) announced today it has no plans to deregister the DAP as the federal Opposition has been found to be a legitimate party.

However, RoS director-general Datuk Mohammad Razin Abdullah said the DAP must hold another election to choose its central executive committee (CEC) as its previous 2013 re-election was found to have been in breach of the law.

“I would like to emphasis that RoS considers the DAP a lawful party and does not intend to deregister it at the moment,” he said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.

Mohammad Razin explained that the the RoS found the current DAP CEC members as well as the party’s key office-bearers elected on September 29, 2013 to be invalid due to complaints from the party’s members who were dissatisfied with the re-election process.

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“Elections should be based on the name list of delegates who have the right to attend and vote in the DAP CECE dated 15 December 2012, involving 2,576 delegates from 865 branches.

“As such, RoS has decided that the DAP must hold a new legitimate and transparent CEC election to enable its delegates to vote in 20 CEC members who can be legally recognised,” he said.

He added that only the legitimate CEC members recognised under the Societies Act 1966 and DAP’s party constitution could then appoint the key office-bearer, who is authorised to sign letters of appointment for the party’s election candidates to the Election Commission.

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Mohammad Razin said the decision was made following his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who is also home minister and had advised the RoS that its actions must be be based on the Societies Act and the DAP constitution.

The DAP’s validity as a political party and that of its top leaders came under scrutiny again last week following remarks from a press secretary to the prime minister.

The Opposition party’s lawmakers claimed the attention was a move towards deregistering it ahead of the 14th general elections due by August 2018, with attacks from its political foes on the issue resurfacing four years after their September 2013 CEC reelection.

The DAP argued that it was allowed by the RoS to contest in the 13th general elections on May 5, 2013 without a problem.