IPOH: Pejuang decided it could not move forward alone and needed to be part of a political coalition, leading it to apply for membership in the now-deregsitered Perikatan Nasional.
"We applied twice to join Perikatan before our application was eventually accepted," party president Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir told Sinar Harian recently.
Prior to the coalition's deregistration by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) on Tuesday (Oct 20), Mukhriz had said the party intended to field candidates in the upcoming Melaka state election through cooperation with Perikatan.
He said the party was not targeting a large number of seats and was prepared to accept the decision of the coalition's leadership on allocations.
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"The coalition’s status remains under scrutiny pending the court’s consideration of issues surrounding Perikatan’s legitimacy.
"The High Court ruling, expected on Thursday (Oct 22), is... being closely watched.
"Whatever the outcome, we as a (group) of political parties working together will still contest in Melaka," he said.
He noted that Pejuang's first collaboration with Perikatan was during the Johor state election, in which it fielded a candidate.
"In (the) Negri Sembilan (state election) we worked alongside coalition partners despite not contesting," he added.
He said Pejuang hopes the same cooperation can continue in Melaka.
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Melaka goes to the polls on Nov 14, with nominations set for Oct 31 and early voting on Nov 10.
On Tuesday, the ROS announced that it had deregistered Perikatan after issuing a suspension order on its activities and a show-cause notice in September.
It said it had received the coalition's response to matters raised under Subsection 13(2) of the Societies Act 1966 and found that the explanation given did not refute the grounds for deregistration.
"Consequently, we have decided to cancel Perikatan's registration under Subparagraph 13(1)(c)(iv) of the Societies Act," the ROS said in a statement.
On Oct 13, the Kuala Lumpur High Court granted Perikatan leave to commence judicial review against the ROS suspension order.
Justice Azizan Md Arshad did not allow an interim stay of execution of the suspension but fixed Thursday to hear an inter-parte stay application on the order.
