Gerakan lowers membership age limit to 16

JOHOR BARU: Gerakan is targeting young voters by lowering the age limit of new party members to 16.

Its president Datuk Dr Dominic Lau said the decision was made during the party's annual national delegates conference held here on Saturday (Nov 9).

He added that engaging young people was important as they would be a huge voting pool in GE15.

Gerakan's present age limit for new members is 18.

"Anyway, we know many 16-year-olds may not know much about politics at that age. That is why we will organise laboratories to engage with them," he said, adding that Gerakan would also need to change and do things differently from its time in Barisan Nasional.

Lau said this was why Gerakan decided to hold their conference in Johor a week earlier than planned.

He said they hoped to use Super Sunday, the Sunday before election day, on Nov 10 to woo voters, especially those returning to the constituency from outstation, including those who were working Singapore.

The conference was originally planned for the Tanjung Piai polling day on Nov 16 in Kuala Lumpur.

Lau said this was also the first time in 50 years that the party was using its own logo and flag in a by-election.

He later introduced their candidate, Wendy Subramaniam, who got thunderous applause from the delegates.