KUCHING, April 23: The guessing game over Democratic Action Party’s (DAP’s) pick to contest in the Stampin parliamentary seat is finally over with the official announcement made by state DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen today he will be contesting in the hot seat in the 14th general election (GE14).
Describing it as a “unsafe” constituency following the redelineation exercise carried out prior to the 2016 state elections, which saw the state seat of Batu Lintang moved from Stampin to Bandar Kuching, Chong said he had to take the challenge.
Chong, the three-term Bandar Kuching MP will move from his safe seat to contest in Stampin, as he said he is more “winnable”, and he does not care which candidate will be fielded by Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) to contest there.
His special assistant Dr Kelvin Yii, on the other hand, will contest in Bandar Kuching.
The state DAP candidates for Mas Gading, Bintulu, Serian and Mas Gading are Mordi Bimol, Tony Chiew and Edward Luak respectively.
Barisan Nasional (BN) Sarawak is expected to announce all its candidates tomorrow.
The earlier announcement was made by Chong at the car park area outside DAP Batu Kawah service centre here this evening in a ‘ceramah’ attended by thousands of people.
The state DAP will be contesting in nine seats in GE14.
The party had earlier announced that Lanang, Sibu and Sarikei will be defended by incumbents Alica Lau, Oscar Ling an Wong Ling Biu respectively while their candidate in Kapit is Paren Nyawi.
In the 2013 general election, Julian Tan defeated SUPP’s Datuk Yong Khoon Seng in Stampin with a majority of 18,670 votes in a constituency of 84,732 voters. Chong won Bandar Kuching that year with a majority of 19,642 votes over SUPP’s Tan Kai.
Sarawak DAP has classified Stampin as a “risky” constituency and estimates its chance of retaining the seat at 50-50. — DayakDaily
