GTA issues PN ultimatum on GE15 alliance

Dr Mahathir Mohamad says he hopes to finalise the seats that will be contested by Gerakan Tanah Air by Nov 2.

PUTRAJAYA: Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) has given Perikatan Nasional (PN) two days to decide on a political alliance for the 15th general election (GE15).

According to Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is chairman of the loose coalition led by his party Pejuang, talks with PN were still ongoing but a deadline has now been set.

“After that (deadline), we can finalise our seats by Nov 2,” he said at a press conference today, admitting, however, that both parties have run into some difficulties in the discussions.

Yesterday, PN secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin said there had been no official discussions between the coalition and GTA.

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Hamzah said it was common in politics for discussions and enquiries between representatives of different parties, adding that PN’s leadership had yet to decide on holding official discussions with GTA.

Mahathir also said GTA was willing to work with Pakatan Harapan but had yet to receive any positive response.

“I have made it obvious that I am willing to cooperate with anyone apart from Umno and BN,” the former prime minister said. “But they must give a positive response.”

GTA is a loose coalition comprising Malay-based parties, NGOs, academics and professionals. The political parties in GTA are Mahathir’s Pejuang, Putra, the National Indian Muslim Alliance Party (Iman) and Parti Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia (Berjasa).

It was previously reported that all candidates from GTA will use the Pejuang logo as it had failed to be registered by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) prior to the nationwide polls. - FMT