KUALA LUMPUR, 22 Oct 2009: The Gerakan national delegates conference on 31 Oct and 1 Nov 2009 will discuss amendments to the party constitution, said party secretary-general Teng Chang Yeow today.
“As announced by the president, we will be proposing a few amendments to the party constitution, one is to amend the appointment of office bearers namely the post of the deputy secretary-general and deputy treasurer-general,” he said.
Teng said under the current constitution, the deputies must be appointed from among the elected committee members, but now they would amend it to allow appointments from outside the elected central committee members.
He added that there would also be amendments to the formation of branches.
“At this point of time, the Gerakan constitution only allows 18 branches per division, one division [per] parliamentary constituency, now we want the formation of more than 18 branches,” he said.
Some 1,800 delegates are expected to attend the conference which will be opened by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also the Barisan National chairperson on 1 Nov. Party adviser Tun Dr Lim Keng Yaik is also expected to attend.
“A closed-door presidential briefing to the delegates will be held for the first time. The president will brief the delegates on the party direction, on the impending constitutional amendments and also on the progress of some of the projects undertaken by Gerakan such as the Wawasan Open University,” said Teng at a press conference at the party headquarters today.
The two-day 38th national conference will emphasise the prompt delivery of messages by party president, Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, to grassroots members and the public by adopting various media.
Gerakan Youth and Wanita will also hold programmes during the conference and for the first time the entire conference will be aired live over the party website. — Bernama
