KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 — Organisers of this Saturday’s “Bantah TPPA” rally have agreed to hold the event at Padang Merbok instead of Dataran Merdeka, the Kuala Lumpur mayor said today.

Datuk Mhd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz said that the application to rally at Dataran Merdeka and Jalan Raja Laut was rejected and the organisers of the rally protesting Malaysia’s signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement were instead offered the use of Padang Merbok.

“First they don’t agree, but last evening I was told they agreed to it,” he said.

Mhd Amin also said that the organisers must still pay a deposit of up to RM20,000 to use Padang Merbok to ensure there is no damage to the infrastructure and the area is kept clean.

The rally organisers will be collecting the official authorisation from DBKL for using Padang Merbok this evening, the mayor said.

Dang Wangi police chief ACP Zainol Samah said on Tuesday that the rally notice given to the police by the organisers was incomplete, lacking a permission letter from DBKL to rally on select streets of Kuala Lumpur.

Organisers of the “Bantah TPPA” movement confirmed their intention to rally this Saturday after the High Court last week rejected the judicial review application against the TPP that was filed last year by Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim), Urusetia Menangani Gejala Sosial (Unggas) and Persatuan Teras Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Malaysia (Teras).

Islamist party PAS and its splinter group Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) will also be participating in the rally.

Electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 also pledged their support and participation for the rally on Tuesday but less than 24 hours after the announcement, the group’s chairman Maria Chin Abdullah was summoned for a meeting with the police yesterday.

Twelve countries, namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US, Vietnam and Malaysia, concluded the TPP negotiations in Atlanta on October 5 last year.

The TPP is a free trade agreement that has been negotiated by the US, Malaysia and ten other nations as part of the larger Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership since 2010.