Dominic Lau: Gerakan’s revival will start at Tanjung Piai


Gerakan is expected to field the party’s deputy secretary-general Wendy Subramaniam as candidate for the upcoming Tanjung Piai by-election.

(The Star) – The revival of Gerakan as a political party in Malaysia will start at Tanjung Piai, says Datuk Dr Dominic Lau.

The Gerakan president said that the party’s participation in the by-election would see it become a third force in the local political scene, after Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan.

“The rakyat is not satisfied with Pakatan’s performance as the ruling government, while Barisan – through the cooperation between Umno and PAS – is heading towards a racially-divided policy.

“It is time for Malaysia to have an alternative choice, or a third force, where we have received offers from other political parties to work together,” he said, urging voters here to use the by-election to send a signal to both Pakatan and Barisan.

Lau said this when met after officiating Gerakan’s operation centre for the by-election held at Taman Utama in Pekan Nenas here on Monday (Oct 28).

He pointed out that the party decided to contest the Tanjung Piai by-election after sitting out the previous eight by-elections following the 14th General Election.

“After assessing our position with the new leadership, Gerakan is now ready to make our return.

“We are going back to our roots as during our formation in 1968, we were able to win Penang on our own during the 1969 General Election,” he said, adding that the party has more than 300,000 members nationwide.

When asked whether the party has identified its candidate for the by-election, Lau said the candidate is a local and the official announcement will be made at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday (Oct 29).

It is learnt that Gerakan will be fielding its deputy secretary general Wendy Subramaniam.

Meanwhile, Lau called upon the Pakatan ruling government to be fair in the by-election, claiming that several of its flags had been seized by the Pontian District Council.

“Why are they targeting our flags when Pakatan flags can be found in almost every part of Tanjung Piai, without any action taken against them?

“Be fair in this by-election. Prior to this, several ministers have coincidentally been announcing allocations for Tanjung Piai,” he said.

Gerakan had previously won the Simpang Renggam parliamentary seat before GE14 and left the Barisan coalition in June last year.

The Election Commission has set Nov 2 as the nomination day and Nov 16 as the polling day for the parliamentary by-election.

The by-election was triggered after its MP Dr Md Farid Md Rafik, 42, died of heart complications on Sept 21.

 



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