NewGen Party takes bid to join Harapan to Dr M

The NewGen Party (NewGen) today met with Pakatan Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad to push for their bid to join the opposition coalition.

"The meeting was to officially inform Mahathir that we at NewGen party want to join Harapan as its fifth member.

"We conveyed our intentions and why Harapan should accept us," NewGen president A Rajaretinam told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

NewGen's meeting with Mahathir took place this morning in Putrajaya.

Rajaretinam said he was confident that NewGen can help swing 15 percent of the Indian votes in Harapan's favour, which could threaten 16 of BN's marginal seats.

He added that during the meeting with Mahathir, the former had acknowledged for the need of a party for minorities including Indians.

NewGen, under former senator Ezam Mohd Nor had tried to rebrand the party as Parti Bebas Rasuah and sought to join Harapan in July.

However, he left the party after he was not able to overcome regulatory hurdles for the rebranding.

The party was subsequently taken over by Rajaretinam, who in September, announced plans to rebrand the party as the Minorities Rights Action Party.

He also renewed the party's interest in joining Harapan.

Harapan secretariat chief Saifuddin Abdullah had on Sept 25 said the coalition will consider the application but no decision had been made.- Mkini