Court Option Open If No Response From Home Minister Pejuang S Lawyer

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Pejuang may go to court again if the home minister gives no response to its appeal to be registered as a political party.
The group's counsel Mior Nor Haidir Suhaimi revealed this to Malaysiakini today.
He said that the appeal is part of the avenues under the Societies Act available to Pejuang, following the Registrar of Societies' (ROS) rejection of its application to be registered as a political party.
Mior, however, lamented that the minister has not given a response to the group's appeal, which was filed immediately after the ROS rejected its registration bid on Jan 6.
"Pejuang followed the flow of procedure under the Societies Act, whereby upon ROS rejecting our registration application, we appealed to the home minister.
"The appeal was filed a day after the ROS issued the rejection.
"However, we will be sending further letters because the minister has not responded at all.
"Despite some people saying that he (minister) may be sick, surely he would have delegated the authority (to deal with Pejuang's appeal) to another person.
"If no reasonable reply is forthcoming (from the minister), we may go to the courts again (to compel ROS to register Pejuang as a political party).
"Pejuang is awaiting the decision of the appeal (from the minister) and will consider appropriate action under the law later," Mior said.
It was reported that Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin was recently discharged from the hospital, following recovery from Covid-19.
On Jan 6 via separate emails, the ROS rejected applications from Pejuang and the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) to be registered as official political parties.
As a result of the ROS' rejection, Pejuang withdrew its legal action against the delay by the ROS in deciding on the party's registration status.
Pejuang was formed last August as an offshoot of Bersatu.


Pejuang pro-tem chairperson and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mahathir, pro-tem president Mukhriz Mahathir, and several others were previously ejected from Bersatu for refusing to sit with the Perikatan Nasional government during a parliamentary session.
Muda is spearheaded by Muar MP Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, who was formerly Bersatu Youth chief until he was booted out from the party. Muda aims to be a youth-centric, multiracial political platform.
Mukhriz had said that if Pejuang's registration is rejected, the party may consider contesting the next general election under another party or on a coalition's ticket, rather than as third-party independents.
On Jan 27, it was reported that Pejuang is mulling whether to contest the next general election under Amanah logo.
Meanwhile, Muda has gone ahead to haul the ROS to court for the group to be registered as an official political party.
In its court filings, Syed Saddiq claimed that the main reason for the rejection of Muda's registration application was due to him refusing to "commit" himself to the unnamed prime minister.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court will decide on Feb 4 whether to grant leave to Muda to commence with judicial review against the ROS' decision to reject the group's registration application. - Mkini

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