PUTRAJAYA, Oct 19 — Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) has no choice but to use Parti Pejuang Tanah Air’s (Pejuang) flag and logo for the 15th general election (GE15) because it has yet to get the official nod from the Registrar of Societies (RoS), chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
During a press conference in Putrajaya, Dr Mahathir said the Malay nationalist political coalition, which submitted its registration papers to the RoS on September 6, will focus its efforts on educating the public about its election manifesto as well as introducing its candidates to them.
“We are a coalition that is free of criminals unlike Umno and its leaders who are all desperate to win the general election for fear of ending up in jail for their many criminal activities.
“GTA have decided to use Pejuang’s flag and logo for the election campaign and the onus is on us to make sure the public don’t confuse us with other parties,” the former prime minister said.
Dr Mahathir, who is the incumbent Langkawi MP, admitted he was worried about Barisan Nasional (BN) forming the government as the ruling coalition appears to have the upper hand due to predictions of a low voter turnout on polling day on account of the monsoon season.
He further alleged that almost all leaders in BN and its component parties have criminal cases and they are only out to save their skins.
“I suspect Umno and BN want to make sure as few people as possible turn out to vote so they can ferry or transport their own people to vote by paying them.
“They will have their people travelling with them, giving money and we object to all this, and we object to people taking in their handphones to polling centres as they will video or photograph themselves and their vote for rewards later,” he claimed.
Apart from that, Dr Mahathir reiterated GTA’s stance that its main rival is BN, while expressing his concern about working with Pakatan Harapan.
“The Malays think we are not for them due to DAP being in PH. Nevertheless, the enemy is BN and Umno and we cannot let them take the government.
“It sends a bad signal to the world when we have criminals as our leaders,” he added.
The Election Commission will meet tomorrow to decide the key dates for GE15.
