KUALA LUMPUR: Gerakan will groom 52 members to contest in the 15th General Election under its own logo.
Its state party leaders would select the candidates for a series of training this year.
“We have to return to Parliament and the state assemblies,“ President Datuk Dominic Lau said at a news conference at the party’s headquarters here on Saturday.
“They will undergo a series of trainings such as public speaking. This is to ensure they are able to talk about our stand as a party, our ideology, opinions and issues.
“In the third quarter, they will need to meet the public and engage with them through maybe ‘kopi tiam’ sessions to convey our message and listen to the grouses at the grassroot level.
“Finally, they will be assessed on their strengths and weaknesses. They will have a key performance indicator which includes the number of press
statements issued and press conferences held. Based on this review, they will be informed of their role in the upcoming general election, such as being a candidate or campaign managers or part of a publicity team.
“We have identified several constituencies, including Penang. We need a machinery to do this.”
In the 15th General Election on May 9, Gerakan had lost all the 11 Parliament and 31 state seats it contested in.
The party is now going it alone after leaving the Barisan Nasional (BN) in June last year. Gerakan has steered away from being labelled as an opposition party and prefers to be referred to as an independent political party.
