KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 23): Gerakan vice president Datuk Dr Dominic Lau Hoe Chai announced that he will be contesting the party's president post in the upcoming party election on Nov 17.

At a press conference today, Lau said he received many calls from party members including veteran Gerakan members, urging him to participate in the next party presidential poll.

"To me, the next party president has a big and heavy responsibility to re-build Gerakan to its glory days, from the current difficult situation," he said.

"We need a president who could devote his full-time commitment in building up the party again. We understand that there are many Gerakan members [who] are having some worries about the party's future. When we were in BN (Barisan Nasional coalition), there were many constraints and limitation[s], we could not implement a lot of our ideologies. But now we have [taken] the big step to leave BN, so we can rebuild Gerakan base on our ideology," he said.

Lau also said the next party leadership should focus on consolidating Gerakan influences at the grassroots level.

"We should consolidate our party first, give our members the sense of belonging, and let them know how to bring the party move forward, what are our ideology and stance in all the issues that are happening. We hope Gerakan could be a policy-driven party," he said.

"We are not an opposition now, we are an independent political party, and whichever policy [is] beneficial to the country, regardless of who [is] proposing it, we will support," he added.

During the 14th general election (GE14) on May 9 this year, Gerakan lost in all 11 parliamentary and 31 state seats it contested.

The party also exited BN on June 23 this year, after joining the coalition since 1973.

President Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong also announced that he will not seek re-election as the party's chief after Gerakan's dismal performance in GE14.