GEORGE TOWN, Oct 13 — Now a Perikatan Nasional (PN) component, Gerakan is confident of winning over 300,000 first time voters in Penang as the country heads towards the 15th general election.

Penang Gerakan chairman Oh Tong Keong said out of the 300,000 new voters, about 60,000 are between 18 and 20 years old.

"The rest are between 21 and 70 years old and we need to focus on winning them over,” he told Malay Mail when contacted today,

He said the constituency with the highest number of voters in the state is Bukit Mertajam with 120,000 voters to be followed by Bayan Baru with 119,000 voters.

Oh said the PN leadership will finalise its candidates this week.

"Tomorrow, the Penang PN will meet to discuss seat allocation and the decision will be brought to the PN central working committee to be finalised,” he said.

"We have already vetted through all the proposed candidates to make sure they have a clean record so that there would not be any issues during nomination day,” he said.

Oh also said he hoped Penang will hold its state election concurrently with the general election.

"They should not waste government funds by opting to hold the state polls separately,” he said, referring to the state government led by Pakatan Harapan.

"Voters who live outstation may not want to come back again to vote a few months later.”

Oh also said Gerakan has prepared a list of candidates for the state election, expressing confidence that they are able to compete with those fielded by the ruling state government’s picks even as he admitted it will be a tough fight.

"Our candidates are multiracial, professionals and we have three female candidates too,” he said.

"Even if we were to win one seat, it is considered a win, as it means we will be able to provide check and balance in the state assembly,” he added.

Oh also admitted that Gerakan has another challenge this time around, saying some of its loyalists still thought the party is with the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.

"We have come across many supporters who told us they will vote for Barisan Nasional to support us because they thought we are still with the coalition,” he said.

"This is why the grassroots have asked that we contest under our own Gerakan logo in GE15,” he added.

He said Gerakan’s logo is well-known among many Penang voters, especially when the party had won the state administration back in 1969 under its own logo.

"The PN logo is relatively new so many of the older voters will not be able to recognise it and they would assume it’s another Malay-based party,” he said.

As for the number of seats Gerakan will be contesting in this round, Oh said they will be taking on more seats compared to the 14th general election in 2018.

In the last general election, Gerakan contested in four parliamentary seats and 13 state seats.

It exited BN soon after GE14.