Gerakan wants to contest the Bachang state constituency in Malacca in the next general election (GE), insisted its president Koh Tsu Koon.       

He said even though the seat was won by the DAP in 2008, the party was fully prepared to wrest it back.     

"It (the seat) was ours since 1995," he told reporters after opening the party's delegates meeting here today.     

He said this in response to a statement by Malacca Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam, who is also Malacca BN chairman, that Umno or the MCA should be alloted the constituency as either party had a better chance of winning it.      

Koh said Gerakan might have lost Bachang in 2008 but it won the seat with big majorities in 1995 and 2004 general elections.   

"We only lost by a 41-majority in 1999 because at the time there was an issue involving Anwar Ibrahim, which took away some of the Malay and Chinese support for us. But we got back the seat in 2004."     

He stressed that the GE in 2008 was a political tsunami in which many seats belonging to other BN parties were also snatched.   

He said the statement by Mohd Ali was discouraging and that the matter should have been discussed internally.    

- Bernama