Until then, SNAP would automatically remain outside the ruling BN in line with the Nov 5 decision by the Registrar of Societies to deregister the 41-year-old party following its failure to resolve its internal crisis, BN Secretary-General Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat said yesterday.

The letter sent last week by newly elected SNAP Secretary-General Stanley Edmund Jugol to him that the party was still a BN component was incorrect, he told BERNAMA.

SNAP's newly elected president Edwin Dundang Bugak also claimed on Sunday that the party was still a BN component legally and technically because it had never left or been expelled from the governing coalition.

Dundang had said the decision by the Court of Appeal in April to defer the implementation of the ROS' order to deregister SNAP meant that the party need not be revived by anyone and its membership in the BN had not been affected.

"We are still holding to the ROS' decision to deregister SNAP. The deregistration has automatically disqualified SNAP as a BN component," he said.

Mohamed said although the Court of Appeal allowed SNAP to apply for a certiorari order to set aside the ROS' decision, nevertheless the case on the party's deregistration had still not been resolved through the court process.

"As long as the case is not settled, SNAP will remain outside the BN. I'm making this clear so that there will be no confusion about the relations between SNAP and BN.

"After the case has been settled, SNAP is required to make a fresh application to rejoin BN. To become a BN component, a party must apply, it's not automatic.
"I'll reply to SNAP's letter soon", he said.

Internal crisis between two rival factions in SNAP, one of the oldest political parties in the country, since April last year led to the ROS' decision to deregister the party.

Following the deregistration, the rival faction led by the party's former Vice-President Datuk William Mawan formed Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) which had been accepted into the BN, while the group led by SNAP President Datuk Amar James Wong brought the case to court to quash the ROS' decision to deregister SNAP.

Last Sunday, the group, which defended SNAP held the party's General Assembly and elected Dundang, a former government administrator, as the president, succeeding Wong, 80, veteran politician, who withdrew after helming the party for 22 years. In KUCHING, SNAP leaders declined to comment on Mohamed's statement. "I prefer not to make any comments for now," Jugol said - Bernama