By Nancy Nais
KUCHING, Nov 25: Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) will field a substantial number of new faces in the upcoming State election.
Its chairman Chong Chieng Jen in a press conference at Sarawak DAP headquarters today said: “There will be quite a fair bit of new faces from DAP. However, I cannot say it (sic) offhand right now.”
Chong, who is the incumbent Kota Sentosa assemblyman also said PH will contest in all 82 seats.
On seat allocation, he disclosed that the agreement between PH component parties in January this year is still valid, with Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) contesting in 47 seats, DAP in 26 seats and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) in nine seats.
Chong, who is also the Sarawak DAP chairman and Stampin Member of Parliament (MP), said some of the DAP incumbents will continue to defend their seats, but he refused to give reveal more details.
When asked if he will defend his Kota Sentosa seat, Chong said: “Let’s see. We will announce when the time comes.”
Meanwhile, he acknowledged that it will be an uphill battle for PH in this election.
“As discussed in our PH meeting today, it will be a tough fight for us especially now with the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) that restricts us from campaigning and conducting other related activities. This will make the election much more unfair as compared to before. So we have to think of new strategies to overcome this.
“Nevertheless, it is upon PH Sarawak to give the ruling coalition Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) a good fight. The fact that GPS who was formerly Barisan Nasional (BN) has been ruling the state for 58 years, it is long enough especially given the plight of Sarawakians and a lot of underdevelopment (sic),” Chong said.
On the other hand, with the recent development at the federal politics level where GPS has twice supported United Malays National Organisation (Umno) and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (Pas), Chong asserts that the country will only go backward and not progress.
He hoped that in the coming State election, Sarawakians will send a strong message to show their disapproval against GPS, Umno and Pas.
Sarawakians are set to go to the ballot boxes to choose their State government on Dec 18, while nomination day is on Dec 6 and early voting on Dec 14. — DayakDaily
