PKR: Shortage of funds the main drawback

(The Star) – Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has not being able to make a major breakthrough in rural areas in both the state and parliamentary elections due to limited funds.

Its secretary general, Datin Paduka Dr Tan Yee Kew, said of its RM26 For Change fund-raising drive on Saturday in each election, their candidates failed to win in their respective seats.

“The state election is soon. We are so determined to make a change but we realised that we are very short of funds,” she told a press conference.

“In the past state and national elections, there were many seats which we lost by a margine of just a few hundred votes. The main reason is that we are finding it very difficult to penetrate the rural areas.”

Dr Tan singled out Sarawak as an example where the sheer size of the rural areas was making it difficult for the party to reach the voters.

“In Sarawak, a single constituency can be so huge and where the voters are all scattered. We do need resources to cover the whole area,” she said.

Dr Tan said it was for this reason that they were organising a fund-raising drive. The money raised, she said, would be used to cover the expenses of its election workers and to build their election machinery.

“We are a new party. We are unable to carry out mega projects. But with the support of the people, we can do small projects. If we are the government than we can implement big projects,” she said.

Meanwhile, Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian said they would be meeting DAP and Parti Amanah Negara in two weeks’ time to finalise seat allocation for the state election.

“We will go for one-to-one fight with the BN. We will cooperate with DAP and Pakatan Harapan,” he added.

Baru said they would be asking to contest in six of the 11 new seats besides the seats which it had contested previously.