Straight fight between Dominic Lau and Andy Yong for Gerakan presidency

KUALA LUMPUR: Gerakan’s internal polls on Nov 17 will see a straight fight for the party leadership.

Vice-president Datuk Dominic Lau Hoe Chai and deputy youth chief Andy Yong Kim Seng will be contesting the post of president of the former Barisan Nasional component party.

Penang Gerakan chairman Oh Tong Keong and vice president A. Kohilan Pillay are meanwhile contesting for the post of deputy president.

They were among the party hopefuls who filed their nomination papers and who were assigned their candidate numbers at Gerakan headquarters here on Saturday (Nov 10).

Another point of interest in the party election is the win by Raja Sara Petra, daughter of blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, as the Wanita deputy chief.

The two top positions in the Wanita wing were won uncontested as only one candidate registered for each of the positions.

Janice Wong was the sole candidate for the Wanita chief position, while Raja Sara was the only one who filed nominations for the position of deputy Wanita chief.

Raja Sara, 30, incidentally is also one of eight candidates vying for the four elected vice-presidential positions in the main body of Gerakan.

“We failed to win any seat in the last general election, and if the Government goes ahead and lowers the voting age from 21 to 18, we will be in even worse trouble,” Raja Sara told reporters when met.

She said that she is contesting for the post of vice-president after securing the Wanita number two post because she wants to represent the voice of women as well as younger Malaysians in the party.

A total of 1,500 delegates from the party branches, divisions and states will be given the responsibility of selecting their national leaders in the election.

On Sept 16, Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong announced that he would step down as Gerakan president, following the party’s dismal performance in the 14th General Election (GE14).

Mah had failed to defend his Teluk Intan parliamentary seat.

In GE14, Gerakan which claims a membership of about 300,000, lost in all 11 parliamentary and 31 state seats it contested.

Gerakan became an independent party on June 23 after deciding to leave the Barisan Nasional coalition, which it had been a member of since 1973.