WENDY Subramaniam, Gerakan’s candidate in the Tg Piai by-election, pledged to donate all her MP allowances to the constituency in Johor should the first-time candidate win on Saturday.

“Voters have been asking me what can I do for them if I win here. As Gerakan has no resources of its own, I have decided to donate all my allowances, which come to about RM16,000 to a fund to run this constituency,” the Gerakan deputy secretary-general during a press conference in Pontian today. 

The fund will be managed by Gerakan, she said. 

When asked how she planned to fund her own activities, Wendy said: “I am still a practising lawyer.

“My pledge to Tg Piai is that I will give all my allowances for this whole term.”

The federal government currently gives RM500,000 per year to each Pakatan Harapan MP for constituency activities and RM100,000 to opposition MPs. 

Gerakan president Dominic Lau said the fund will be managed transparently and promised to publish all the expenditures if it wins the seat. 

Meanwhile, Wendy said she’s happy with campaigning house to house and Gerakan has no plans for ceramah. 

“I have been visiting voters directly and many say that they haven’t met the other candidates.”

Gerakan is not doing public ceramah as the party lacked funds, she said. 

This is Gerakan’s first by-election after the party decided to leave Barisan Nasional following the coalition’s defeat in the general election last year.

This is the ninth by-election since GE14. With the exception of the Sandakan contest in Sabah, BN has won the last three – Cameron Highlands, Semenyih and Rantau.

The Tg Piai seat is being contested by six parties – Karmaine Sardini (PH), Wee Jeck Seng (BN), Wendy, Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz (Berjasa), and independents Faridah Aryani Abd Ghaffar and Ang Chuan Lock. 

The seat fell vacant with the death of its MP Md Farid Md Rafik from PH. – November 12, 2019.