What Najib said about Umno polls postponement in 2015

In 2015, the Umno supreme council had resolved to extend the deadline to hold its internal elections by 18 months.

At a press conference to elaborate on the decision to put off party elections which were due in 2016, Umno president Najib Abdul Razak read out portions of the Umno constitution which spelt out the limits of the extension.

"According to Article 10.16 of the Umno constitution, the supreme council has the right to postpone elections for its supreme council, divisions and branches.

"This postponement cannot exceed 18 months from the date the elections were supposed to be held," he said on June 26, 2015.

Umno elections are held triennially, with the last election results being announced on Oct 20, 2013, and read out by then elections committee chairperson Tajol Rosli.

This would mean that the next election should have been held by Oct 20, 2016, at the latest.

Since that election was postponed for 18 months, it may mean that the current mandate for Umno office bearers expired yesterday.

Court order sought

Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, however, argued that the ROS had allowed the party a second postponement – it can delay its election until April 19 next year.

He claimed this was confirmed by the ROS in a correspondence with Umno dated Oct 31, 2017.

Yesterday, 16 Umno branch members sought a court order to invalidate the ROS' decision on the grounds that the party had violated Articles 9.3, 9.4, 10.16, 15.3 and 18.2 of the Umno constitution by not holding elections by April 20.

The applicants also sought to compel the ROS to issue a notice under Section 14(2) and 14(5) of the Societies Act for provisional and permanent dissolution, along with another court order to suspend all Umno activities.

Previously, opposition parties had accused the ROS acting unfairly by deregisteringBersatu and refusing to allow the registration of Pakatan Harapan. Mkini