Umno expels 16 members who took party to court

PUTRAJAYA: Umno yesterday expelled with immediate effect the 16 members who filed an application for a judicial review in the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday to have the party dissolved over alleged violation of the party constitution.

Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said their action was clearly in violation of Clause 20.7 of the Umno Constitution which stipulated that any member who went to court over party matters would lose his or her membership automatically.

“All these 16 people are probably wolves in sheep’s clothing, thorns in the flesh. If they want to betray the party, it is better that they are out of the party so that we know who our enemies are rather than being in the party as termites.

“I consulted our lawyers yesterday and all the 16 have been expelled. I will issue the (expulsion) letters today,” he said to reporters after officiating at a ground-breaking for a multi-level car park at Precinct 8 here.

Tengku Adnan said he believed that the 16 people had been used by outsiders unhappy with Umno.

“I know what happened. The (political) opposition wanted a tit for tat. They were unable to handle their party which had problems with the Registrar of Societies (RoS).

They know they are weak and will lose (in the general election). So, they cause all kinds of trouble,” he said.

The 16 Umno members had resorted to legal action to challenge the legitimacy of Umno as a political party for having deferred the party elections.

Tengku Adnan said their allegation was baseless because, as the Umno secretary-general, he had requested RoS to have the party elections postponed to April 2019.

“If RoS had not given its approval, we would have had the party elections,” he said.

Tengku Adnan said there was no truth to a portal news report that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, as the UMNO president, would be unable to sign the letters of electoral candidacy for the party’s candidates contesting the 14th general election following the filing of the application for judicial review.

“There is no problem. We abide by the constitution and we comply with the rules stipulated by the RoS,” he said.