PUTRAJAYA, Oct 11 — Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) founding chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today confirmed he will be contesting in the 15th general election (GE15) to defend the Langkawi Parliamentary seat.
Speaking at a media conference after chairing a GTA meeting here today, the former prime minister said he will be contesting as a people’s representative and not as a prime minister candidate.
“We made the decision that the Langkawi candidate is Dr Mahathir Mohamad, not as a prime minister candidate but an ordinary people’s representative.
“We have not decided who will be the prime minister as the candidate for prime minister is only relevant if we win (GE15),” he said.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced the dissolution of the 14th Parliament to make way for GE15.
In June, Dr Mahathir was reported as saying that he will consider contesting in Langkawi in GE15 if there was no suitable candidate.
In GE14, Dr Mahathir created an upset when he won the Langkawi seat after garnering 18,954 votes to defeat Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Nawawi Ahmad and Zubir Ahmad of PAS with a 8,863 vote majority.
Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir who is also Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) chairman said the meeting also decided that GTA will contest on Pejuang ticket as the movement’s registration has not been approved by the Registrar of Societies (RoS).
“Despite using the name of Pejuang, it does mean the candidate is from Pejuang. Those from GTA are merely managed by Pejuang. We also agreed to field 120 or more candidates including in Sabah,” he said and added that the list of candidates will be drawn up by the party president and non-government organisations in GTA.
However, Dr Mahathir said GTA candidates in Kelantan will contest using the flag and logo of Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra).
GTA submitted its applications to RoS on Aug 18 for registration after the movement was set up on August 4 involving a coalition of four parties namely Pejuang, Berjasa, Putra and Parti Perikatan India Muslim Nasional (Iman) as well as being open to NGOs, individuals as well as Malay academicians and professionals.
On the movement’s strategy for GE15, he said GTA will be putting up candidates who are corruption and crime-free as well as young candidates from among women in line with the implementation of Undi18 which began in the Johor state election in March.
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