Gerakan confident of more Penang seats in GE14

Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong is confident that his party will win more seats in Penang in the 14th general election.

“We are confident that the Penang people will elect a few Gerakan (candidates) to keep a check and balance on the Penang state government.

“Of course, we know (it will be) a DAP-led Penang state government, because... the last round DAP contested 19 seats in Penang and they won all 100 percent.

“They have never lost before so I think they have grown arrogant. We are confident that in Penang, we will do much better,” he said in a press conference at the Gerakan headquarters in Cheras today, after a meeting with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Mah said “many things” have happened in Penang recently, pointing to a statement from MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong about a fashion company being involved in the Penang tunnel project.

Wee had yesterday questioned why a local fashion company named Voir was a shareholder in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the Penang undersea tunnel project.

Candidate list

Gerakan governed Penang for decades, until they lost the state to DAP in the 2008 general election.

Mah said that the party intends to contest in a total of 45 seats, both state and parliament, and that the complete list of potential candidates were submitted to the prime minister today.

Their candidates are from all races, he added, with more than 60 percent of them being new faces.

Mah noted that although Najib has not given his final decision on the candidates, he was confident that most on the list would be accepted, as they are hardworking and have been working in their areas for years.

He also revealed that the candidacy for four to five seats is still being discussed BN component parties, and may be subjected to changes.

“Last time we had 45 seats. I am confident we will get the same number. Maybe one or two seats will have changes. Right now there are four to five seats that in discussions to change,” he said.

'No zero-sum game'

While he admitted that Gerakan and MCA have had their differences in the past, he said they have decided to work together to face GE14 together.

“We don’t want a zero-sum game. We need to work together because I think that’s the only way to go forward,” he stressed.

In order to facilitate better cooperation, Mah said that Gerakan’s disciplinary committee will be “boosted up” to ensure there is no sabotage within the party and with the other component parties.

Gerakan currently has two parliamentary seats, Teluk Intan and Simpang Renggam, and three state seats, one in Johor and two in Sabah.- mkini