Liow's faction vows to quit to force fresh polls

The MCA special briefing today, passed a declaration calling on the party leadership to allow fresh polls at the Central Committee (CC) level to resolve the party crisis.

MCA central committee members aligned to vice-president Datuk Liow Tiong Lai have vowed to quit their posts in order to force fresh leadership polls, Malaysiakini reports.

According to Liow, 13 of the elected central committee members have signed undated resignation letters and are waiting for the right time to submit them to the party.

The crisis, according to him stemmed from the apparent failure of the party leadership to recognise and implement the resolutions of the Oct 10 extraordinary general meeting.

Datuk Liow told reporters after the special briefing that he and his supporters hope that party elections can now be held within 60 days.

He said that once the necessary resignations are submitted, the party must hold fresh polls for the central committee within 30 days as stipulated in the party constitution.

Datuk Liow said that this agenda (pushing for fresh polls) would now be his prime focus.

He also hoped that party president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat would stick to the consensus and the roadmap to hold fresh polls as soon as possible.

But his faction has the task of convincing another seven out of 30 elected central committee members to do the same in order to have the necessary numbers - one third of the powerful CC - to force fresh polls

Yesterday, party information chief Heng Saei Kee said the party would not be postponing the Dec 4-5 AGM, and those claiming so were attempting to cause confusion.

On why party elections must be held as soon as possible, Datuk Liow said the party cannot function under current circumstances and new leaders must be elected.

Observers have noted that Liow's faction is pushing for immediate fresh polls in order to ride on the wave of discontent against Ong.