August elections to end MTUC's 3-year leadership tussle
The Malaysian Trades Union Congress had been embroiled in a leadership dispute since a High Court ruling in 2023 declared the triennial elections held in 2022 null and void.
PETALING JAYA : After a three-year leadership tussle, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) will hold its triennial elections at a special delegates conference in early August to resolve the impasse.
The nation's largest labour centre had effectively been without a working committee after a High Court ruling in 2023 declared the triennial elections held a year earlier as null and void.
Since then, it had been embroiled in a leadership dispute.
In February, the Court of Appeal heard a challenge by MTUC president Effendi Abdul Ghani against his secretary-general, Kamarul Baharin Mansor, both of whose elections were declared null and void in 2023.
It consented to a mutual agreement to set up a joint special committee to run MTUC and hold fresh elections within 90 days.
According to a notice from committee head J Solomon, a former MTUC secretary-general, elections will be held during the two-day conference beginning on Aug 2 to select 19 office bearers for the 2025–2027 term.
The positions include president and deputy president, 13 vice-presidents, the secretary-general and deputy secretary-general, and the finance secretary and deputy finance secretary.
The vice-presidents will comprise seven from the private sector and three each from the public sector, local authorities and statutory bodies.
About 500 delegates from private and government sector unions are expected to vote in the August elections.
The court had given the committee 90 days to conduct the elections as per MTUC's constitution with a budget of RM300,000.
The committee must also submit a report and financial accounts to the incoming office bearers 14 days after the elections.
In 2023, the Shah Alam High Court had declared the elections held a year earlier as null and void following an application by a former MTUC president, Halim Mansor, citing actions that were ultra vires the congress's constitution.
Subsequently, the court allowed a conditional stay of execution, which made it clear that MTUC officials should only handle its daily operational matters and refrain from making policy decisions and statements or attend meetings in any of their capacities.
Effendi and Kamarul were later embroiled in another legal matter on who was the rightful president of MTUC. This led to the Court of Appeal ordering the setting up of the joint special committee.
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