The Registrar of Societies (ROS) has slapped Bersatu, which was co-founded by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, with a provisional dissolution order under Section 14(5) of the Societies Act 1966, which comes into effect today.

Chief Registrar Surayati Ibrahim announced this during a press conference at the ROS headquarters in Putrajaya this afternoon.

“Bersatu has failed to submit thorough information and documents that were requested through a notice that was issued under Section 14 (2) of the Societies Act 1966.

“Therefore, as the chief registrar, I have taken the initiative under section 14(5) of the Act to impose a provisional dissolution upon Bersatu,” Surayati told a packed press conference, adding that the dissolution was effective today.

She declined to state in detail the documents Bersatu had failed to submit, despite a volley of questions from members of the press.

Section 14(5) of the Act reads: Where the particulars required to be furnished under subsection (2) are not furnished within the time stated in the order, or any extension thereof allowed by the registrar, the registrar may make a provisional order for the dissolution of the society.

Sub-section 2 states that the ROS may request from a society to furnish it with documents regarding its rules, list of office bearers and members, meeting details, audited account, and other such particulars.

Surayati added that Bersatu has 30 days from today to comply with ROS’ directives, or risk being permanently dissolved.

“I would also like to inform that following Section 14(7) of the Societies Act 1966, 30 days after this provisional dissolution is issued or if there are appeals and the appeals are rejected, this provisional dissolution order will become permanent and Bersatu will have its registration rejected (completely),” she said.

In the meantime, the party is barred from using its name and logo, and it is also prohibited from organising any activity, lest running foul of the law, she said.

A notice regarding its provisional dissolution was delivered to Bersatu at 12.30pm today.

The ROS had previously sent a notice dated Feb 28 to Bersatu, requesting the party to furnish its meeting minutes and financial documents within 30 days from that date or face deregistration.

The additional documents were hand-delivered by Bersatu organising secretary Muhamad Suhaimi Yahya on March 29.

The Umno-splinter group, which was formed in 2016, has been facing trouble with the ROS over its annual general meeting that was held in December.

There were questions over how the national level meeting was held before the branches and divisions could do so.

In February, Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin explained that Bersatu's constitution had stipulated that branches only need to hold AGMs a year after they were formed.

Not politically motivated

When pressed about Muhyiddin’s explanation, Surayati said ROS did not base its decisions on “personal interpretations”.

“ROS’ interpretation (of party constitutions) is what we use, not personal interpretations,” she said.

“We only follow our official interpretations (of party constitutions),” she said.

She denied ROS’ move was politically-motivated and said the decision was made based on “facts and data we obtained”.

Surayati said ROS had instead taken previous complaints by Bersatu members, whose memberships the party leadership had disputed, into consideration.

“Its members were not satisfied with how the party was run... and they used the word Armada (the name of Bersatu’s youth wing) when the word does not exist in its constitution.

“Members were confused about this, and this shows the party leadership is unable to clearly explain issues to its members,” said the chief registrar.

Meanwhile, Surayati added that Bersatu’s status meant Pakatan Harapan’s application to register as a coalition could not be processed.

“Harapan’s application can’t be processed, the process can’t be continued,” she said.