KOTA KINABALU – Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) will be joining the fray in Sabah for the upcoming 15th general election.
According to Pejuang deputy president Datuk Wira Marzuki Yahya, voters in Sabah have begun to accept GTA as an alternative choice in the country’s current political situation.
Marzuki, who was in Tuaran recently, added that GTA has identified the parliamentary seats it will contest in after gauging the response of the constituents.
“The question of where as well as the candidate will be announced later and what is certain is that the candidate would not be a politician but from the NGO sector,” said Marzuki, who is also GTA secretary-general.
GTA is a coalition comprising Malay political parties, several non-governmental organisations and individuals from academia and professionals who profess love for the country.
GTA has four parties, namely Pejuang, Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Semalaysia (Berjasa), Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) and Parti Perikatan India Muslim Nasional (Iman).
Its protem chairman, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, had previously said that GTA would contest 120 parliamentary seats in the peninsula, which is where the majority of Malay voters are, and where Umno had contested.
Marzuki yesterday witnessed the handing over of application forms to join Pejuang Tuaran from 2,800 people early this month.
The applicants were from the four state constituencies in the Tuaran parliamentary constituency, namely Sulaman, Pantai Dalit, Tamparuli and Kiulu.
Pejuang Kiulu recorded 1,045 new members from four district voting centres (PDM) whereas the Tamparuli branch set up two PDM with 918 new members.
In the Sulaman constituency, 452 membership applications were received while in Pantai Dalit, one PDM was set up with 385 members.
Also present during the event were Tuaran Pejuang coordinator Ariffin Dzulkiflee, Federal Territories Pejuang chief Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan, Pejuang Sabah chief Nicholas Sylvester, state Pejuang leaders as well as representatives from Putra, Berjasa, Iman and NGOs. – Borneo Post Online, October 9, 2022