The Registrar of Societies should have issued a 30-day provisional dissolution order to both UMNO and Barisan Nasional even before issuing such an order to PPBM (Bersatu) on the eve of dissolution of Parliament early this month.
Beginning today, UMNO has become an illegal political party.
It has violated its own party constitution which requires that election for the UMNO Supreme Council should be held once in three years.
As the UMNO Supreme Council elections were last held on Oct. 19, 2013, the new election to the UMNO Supreme Council should have been held by Oct. 19, 2016.
However, the UMNO Supreme Council had the powers under the UMNO Constitution to extend UMNO Supreme Council election by 18 months because of impending general elections – which ends on April 19, 2018.
However, the UMNO/BN government has got the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to give another extension for the holding of election to the UMNO Supreme Council until 19th April 2019, which is illegal and a gross misuse of power, as the RoS has no such powers whether under the UMNO constitution or the Societies Act to grant such an extension.
This means that from today, UMNO has become an illegal political Party. This also means that Barisan Nasional has become an illegal political coalition, as one of its component parties has become an Illegal political party.
This would mean that in the 14th General Elections, the BN symbol “daching” cannot be used, for the “daching” has become illegal as well.
Two veteran UMNO leaders, who were long-time Cabinet Ministers, namely Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz and Tan Sri Rais Yatim have publicly stated that the RoS had no powers to give a further extension for the election of UMNO Supreme Council to April 19, 2019 and that UMNO has today become an illegal political party.
Does the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak accept the rule of law and announce that all BN candidates will be not be using the Barisan Nasional logo of daching, but the logo of one of the BN component parties – that of MCA, Gerakan or MIC? – provided it had been registered with the Election Commission?
(Speech by DAP Lim Kit Siang at the DAP ceramah kopitiam in Gelang Patah on Friday, 20th April 2018 at 10 am)