Gerakan warns PPP: Hands off Taiping

Perak Gerakan has shot down the possibility that it will make way for PPP to contest the Taiping parliamentary seat for a third time.

Its leader Chang Ko Youn said PPP cannot stake claim to the seat because in 2004, Gerakan had agreed to "lend" the rights to contest in Taiping to PPP on the request of then BN chief Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

He said that this was suppose to be a one-off arrangement, and that Gerakan would contesting the Taiping seat again in 2008.

"At the last minute, and once again in the BN spirit, Gerakan agreed to lend Taiping to PPP and the Gerik parliamentary seat, which was originally an Umno seat, was given to Gerakan as a substitute by the BN.

"Every party agreed that it will be the last time for such an arrangement," Chang added in a statement today.

He said PPP president M Kayveas' claim that PPP will "fight" for the right to contest in Taiping was thus "outrageous" and without any basis.

The right to represent BN in the Taiping seat rightfully belonged to Gerakan and he reminded Kayveas that Taiping has been Gerakan's traditional stronghold since 1974.

At a function in Sungai Petani, Kedah, yesterday, Kayveas announced that PPP was seeking to contest six parliamentary and 14 state legislative assembly seats during the coming general election, up from one parliamentary and two state seats it contested in 2008.

In the 2004, Kayveas become the first PPP member to win a seat in Parliament since 1974, but his party was routed in the following general election.