Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan said the party had written letters of appeal to RoS for the decision to be announced before July 31, according to a Sinar Harian report.

“This is to allow Umno to make preparations (for party elections) if the application is rejected. We asked RoS to give us an answer by July 31.

“We will wait until then, but July 31 is a Sunday. If possible, we hope to get a response by today,” he told reporters after a meeting with BN leaders.

The BN deputy chairman maintained that they were not forcing RoS to approve the application, but just to give its decision earlier so Umno could prepare for elections by the end of the year.

Umno had postponed its elections for 18 months after the last term ended on June 30 last year. This means the elections will have to be held before Dec 30 if its application is rejected.

Mohamad said preparing for party elections required many meetings to be held, and that this was no easy feat considering Umno’s size.

“Umno is a big party. We have 22,000 branches and it’s not easy to hold a meeting in one day. We need time and an earlier response from RoS,” he said.