The Tajem faction is still undecided on how to respond to Barisan Nasional mediators' proposal that the party elections scheduled on October 9-10 use the year 2000 delegates list.

Nor have they said anything officially about BN secretary-general Radzi Sheikh Ahmad's statement on Thursday that the sacking of 12 members by the Tajem's supreme council was 'invalid.'

But in a brief written statement issued at the end of a supreme council meeting this afternoon, PBDS president Daniel Tajem said SC members had discussed the two issues and made their views known.

He added that the SC had instructed the party's legal affairs committee to study the matter further and to give its views, after which the party would write to Radzi in his capacity as chairperson of the BN-PBDS technical committee as well as the party's five-member credentials committee overseeing the conduct of party elections.

SC members behind Tajem

Tajem said the legal affairs committee's decision would be based on the provisions of the party constitution as well as the laws of the country.

Malaysiakini understands that the majority of SC members, including Tajem, are maintaining that the sacking of the 12, including controversial vice president Sng Chee Hua and former secretary-general Dublin Unting, who is an assistant state minister, as "proper and in accordance with the law, given the overwhelming evidence for breaching party discipline."

It is learnt that most party leaders feel that agreeing to the proposal on the delegates list issue would be going against the party constitution.

A party official said: "It is better to prepare for the worst than to agree to knowingly violate the party constitution."