PUCHONG: Gerakan today reiterated that the party will sit out of the 15th General Election (GE15) in Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu if the Perikatan Nasional (PN) top leadership decided to use Pas' "moon" logo to contest in the three states.
Party president Datuk Dominic Lau said Gerakan's ideology of being a non-ethnic political entity made the party decide against fielding its candidates in three Pas-controlled states using the Islamist party's logo in the polls.
As a party that champions the rights of all Malaysians, Lau said he did not want people to form the perception that they are religion based.
"We know that when Gerakan candidates use the Pas logo, winning is easy and we would think what is the point of going through the hard way of campaigning to achieve victory.
"But we are sticking to the principals of Gerakan's ideology. We had earlier presented to the PN central leadership that the logo of the coalition should be used in GE15 to reflect unity.
"Gerakan had earlier decided that if PN agrees to use the moon logo in these three states, we will adhere to it and we will sit out in GE15.
"However, we will support the contesting candidates in these three states," he said today after launching the PN Puchong parliamentary operations room for the GE15 in Bandar Puchong Utama here.
PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had earlier said its component parties will be campaigning under the coalition's logo and that an agreement on the matter had been reached.
Last week, Pas secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan had earlier said the party will contest under its own logo and not PN in the states it governed.