PUTRAJAYA: Pejuang chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad has announced that he will be defending his Langkawi parliamentary seat in the 15th general election (GE15).
“However, I’m not the prime minister candidate. A prime minister candidate will only be relevant if we win (the general election),” he said.
The former prime minister had won the seat for Pakatan Harapan during the 14th general election in 2018.
At a press conference, Mahathir also said the Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) coalition had yet to be registered with the Registrar of Societies (RoS). Therefore, the other GTA component parties will be contesting under Pejuang.
However, he said Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) will be contesting in Kelantan under its own logo while other component parties will use Pejuang’s.
Last month, GTA submitted its application to be registered as a coalition with the RoS.
Mahathir, who is also the GTA chairman, said the coalition will be contesting at least 120 parliamentary seats in GE15.
“We want a majority to ensure (political) stability (after GE15),” he said.
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).
On the possibility of working with Anwar Ibrahim after GE15, Mahathir said the question should be directed to the Pakatan Harapan chairman himself.
“The problem is he (Anwar) doesn’t want to work with me (but) I’m a very nice man,” he said.
Mahathir also accused Umno of favouring elections during the monsoon season as it was banking on a low voter turnout to win GE15.
“Umno has government funds and machinery to mobilise its supporters to vote if floods strike,” he said. “This is a dirty trick by Umno.”
He also claimed that if Umno won GE15, its first objective would be to seek a royal pardon for Najib Razak, who is serving a 12-year jail term over the SRC International case.
