Pakatan's delayed registration. Was it an EC-ROS conspiracy?
Well, the Elections Commission (EC) is trying to cause some
trouble again with the creation of more rules and sub-rules so they could give
opposition parties some nightmares, particularly PKR, DAP and PAS who are now
currently working under a coalition named Pakatan Rakyat.
In the recently list of rules being circulated out by the EC
chairman recently, it stated that if any opposition party is contesting in an
area, flags and posters of the other opposition parties who are not contesting
cannot be displayed. The EC chairman was referring to the Pakatan Rakyat (PR)
coalition and blamed the PKR, DAP and PAS leaders for not being serious enough
to get PR registered with the Registrar of Societies (ROS).
The EC head also added that an exception was given to Barisan
Nasional (BN) where its component parties are allowed to display the flags,
banners or posters of their respective parties, because the BN is an entity
registered by the ROS and PR was not until today.
First, the interpretation made by the EC chairman
is certainly confusing and twisting. In the electoral rules underlined by EC,
it only stated that "only contesting
parties are allowed to raise their flags, put up their posters and
banners" and it did not mention
anything which regards to the registration of any political coalition. They
either got it mixed up or they may be trying to confuse the public by twisting
the some facts to benefit the BN leaders.
If you based on the words stated as "only contesting
parties are allowed to raise their flags, put up their posters and
banners",
all component parties of BN are contesting under the BN's banner, therefore, it
is not Umno, MCA, MIC or Gerakan who are contesting. Isn't that so? In this
case, EC has been one-sided in enforcing such rules of theirs.
Secondly, it has been publicly known that Pakatan
Rakyat had submitted their application to register as a political coalition
with the ROS two years ago and to-date their application was still being held
for no reasons. Members of the PR secretariat has also being following up with
ROS on the status of their registration but to no avail.
So, why is ROS delaying the registration of PR as
a new political coalition? No reasons were given till today and the PR leaders
are being left wondering what is wrong with their coalition's application
because the ROS had refused to give any details pertaining to the delay. Is the
delay being carefully planned and instructed by the home minister and Umno
vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein? Where is he now? Can he explain? Is EC
being completely blindfolded into not knowing at all that it was the ROS who
had refused the PR's application for registration?
If EC is a real neutral and professional
electoral organization, they should have given the ROS some pressure in order
to ensure a fair fight between BN and PR if the 13th general elections were to
take place sooner.
Now, can we say this is an EC-ROS conspiracy in
order to give the PR some restrictions and nightmares come next general
elections?