Sabah polls: PKR leaders claim Perikatan not officially registered under RoS, calls for EC to disqualify candidates

KOTA KINABALU, Sept 14 — PKR today challenged Perikatan Nasional (PN) and its leader Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to reveal the coalition’s true status as to whether or not they have been formally recognised as a political party by the Registrar of Societies (RoS).

In back to back statements by the party’s Information Chief Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, and deputy Youth chief Syed Badli Shah Syed Osman, PKR alleged that checks with RoS’ online registration system failed to show PN as an official political entity.

Both Shamsul Iskandar and Syed Badli alluded to the solution that all nominees of the Sabah state elections registered under the PN ticket should therefore be forfeited and barred from contesting using an illegal party.

Shamsul said Muhyiddin must reveal the registration status of the coalition while echoing his deputy youth chief who pressed RoS to clear the air concerning the matter.

“If PN has yet to be officially registered, I urge the Election Commission to take immediate action and cancel all nominees who are contesting under the PN ticket.

“An election is an important platform for the rakyat to exercise their rights as citizens. They have the right to elect a candidate from a party that is legitimate in the eyes of the law to be their representative and subsequently form the state government.

“If nominees from an illegal organisation are allowed to contest, this would be an insult to the democratic Parliamentary system in Malaysia, and for the people, especially those in Sabah,” said Shamsul.

Syed Badli in his statement claimed that a check personally done by him showed that as of 2.22am today, no records of any political party going by the name Perikatan Nasional or Prikatan Nasional were found on RoS’ online database.

The deputy youth chief pointed out that despite the absence of PN’s records online, members of the coalitions have claimed that PN’s application to RoS was submitted on Aug 20 this year.

“Therefore, I urge the RoS to reveal the registration status of Perikatan Nasional,” he said.

PN are contesting 29 of the 73 available seats in the Sabah state polls, part of a loose coalition coined for the elections called Gabungan Rakyat Sabah.

The coalition consists of parties under PN, Barisan Nasional, and local based party Parti Bersatu Sabah.