Teo says supreme council legitimate

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KOTA KINABALU: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) secretary-general Datuk Teo Chee Kang maintains that the supreme council of his faction is legitimate, lawful and rightful.

“The so-called supreme council now led by Datuk Liew Vui Keong has only got one elected leader, which is himself; the president post he won without contest in 2006, the rest (of supreme council members) are all appointed.

“We maintain that this supreme council we have is legitimate, lawful and rightful, and therefore we will just carry out our duties as the supreme council,” he said after another supreme council meeting at Sabah Golf and Country Club here yesterday.

The supreme council had resolved several issues affecting the party in its meeting, among which were to remove Liew as party president and endorse deputy party president Senator Datuk Chin Su Phin as acting president of LDP.

It was also resolved that Liew and his newly appointed secretary general Loretto S Padua Jr to be suspended of their membership.

He said 28 out of the 35 original supreme council members have joined their (Teo’s) line-up.

When asked about Datuk Pang Yuk Ming, who was appointed by Liew as LDP deputy party president, Teo said Pang contested for the vice president’s post in 2006, and lost. Later on he was appointed as an ordinary supreme council member. When vice presidents left the party, Pang was appointed to fill up the vacancy.

Teo also clarified that the resolution passed by the supreme council on June 9 was not a ‘no contest’ for president and deputy president’s posts.

“As a matter of fact, in that supreme council meeting, the resolution passed in that supreme council meeting did not mention of no contest.

The actual resolution on June 9 should be ‘the supreme council supports Datuk Liew Vui Keong and Senator Datuk Chin Su Phin as the president and deputy president respectively to lead the party into greater heights’, he stressed.

Meanwhile, Chin said 19 out of 29 divisions were supporting Teo’s faction, while a few divisions decided to remain neutral.

When asked if his faction would be ready to negotiate a deal, Chin merely said: “Maybe, you never know.”