PETALING JAYA: Umno is prepared to immediately give any additional information to the Registrar of Societies (ROS) on its constitutional amendments to defer its party polls, says Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan (pic).

       “The content of the party’s constitutional amendments on May 15 are almost similar to the amendments made by MCA.

       “Surely after ROS’ approval for MCA, it will serve as a close reference for Umno,” he said.

       He was asked about Umno’s next course of action if ROS did not approve the amendments which were passed during its extraordinary general meeting on May 15.

       The amendments, which were tabled by party vice-president Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin, received unanimous support from the 2,586 delegates present.

       Umno had postponed its party election for 18 months after the 2018/2021 term ended on June 30 last year. This meant that the party polls for the 2021/2023 term must be held before Dec 30 this year.

       However, the Umno general assembly in March agreed to postpone the polls up to six months after GE15 so that the party could focus on the general election.

       Ahmad said Umno’s legal adviser and him hand-delivered a letter to the ROS in Putrajaya on May 17.

       “It was submitted a while ago. We shall wait for the reply,” he said.

       Former Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak also pointed out that MCA had amended its party constitution two years ago.

       “If ROS approved MCA’s amendments, there should be no problem for us,” he said, adding that ROS needed to be consistent.

       “We have done it through the extraordinary general assembly.”

       ROS earlier said that the approval of any party’s constitutional amendment could take between three weeks and a month.

       Its chief Mohd Nawardi Saad said ROS would need some time to look through them before giving the necessary approval.

       “We need to review the amendments based on its terms and reference within the party constitution,” he told Berita Harian.