Rafizi’s Bersama sets target of 70% candidates under 50

Rafizi Ramli urged party members not to dispute the party’s seat allocation methods, saying everyone has a chance of becoming a candidate regardless of gender or race.

PETALING JAYA: Parti Bersama Malaysia hopes to have 70% of its election candidates under the age of 50, including those for the coming Johor and Negeri Sembilan elections.

The party would also “do our best to put forward as many women candidates as we can,” Bersama president Rafizi Ramli said. “We need women candidates of calibre from the Malay, Chinese and Indian communities to join us,” Harian Metro reported him as saying in Negeri Sembilan tonight.

Rafizi urged party members not to dispute the party’s seat allocation methods, saying everyone has a chance of becoming a candidate regardless of gender or race.

“Eligible candidates will be matched with the appropriate seats. Some seats are more suitable for Malay candidates, while others are suited to Chinese or Indian candidates. The process for this is quite complicated.

“There is still a 30% allocation for candidates aged 50 and above, which is a sizeable number, especially if Bersama contests all seats,” he said.

Rafizi said Bersama’s lack of affiliation with other parties provided flexibility for the party to contest as many seats as it wants.

Bersama, launched three weeks ago, had drawn about 25,000 people “none of whom are big names in Malaysian politics”, Rafizi said. He described it as a “good achievement” as he did not expect anyone would want to join Bersama when the party was launched.

“I thought only crazy people would join, because this party is going up against all the other parties and doesn’t have any big names,” he said, and hoped the party would maintain its initial growth momentum to reach a membership level of 50,000.