KUCHING, April 12: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) will renominate four incumbents and field two new faces for the 14th General Election (GE14) with polling on May 9.
Its president Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing said that the party had completed its selection of candidates.
“Four incumbents will be renominated and two will be replaced,” Masing who is also Deputy Chief Minister told DayakDaily today.
He said among the two incumbents not renominated, one will be retiring due to age. The MP concerned, according to Masing, also indicated the intention to retire during 2013 General Election, citing that it would be his last.
As for the second incumbent, Masing said the incumbent was not recommended by the party because the latter had shown disloyalty to the party during 2016 state election. Another reason cited for the incumbent not to be fielded was because he requested for it.
“He personally requested to me — twice — not to be renominated for GE14,” said Masing, who is also Infrastructure Development and Transportation Minister.
Masing pointed out that the new faces replacing the two incumbents are professional and very credible leaders within the party.
“I am very confident that PRS will deliver all the six seats because all our nominees are people with good track records in their respective professions including the new comers!”
“PRS does its selection with care, taking into account the nominees’ performance, credibility and loyalty to BN,” stressed Masing.
Since last year, Masing had publicly endorsed four of its incumbent MPs to be renominated. The endorsement was given based on the recommendations of the state assemblymen of the respective parliamentary constituencies.
PRS is traditionally allocated six seats to contest in parliamentary elections, namely Julau, Hulu Rajang, Kanowit, Sri Aman, Selangau and Lubok Antu.
The four incumbents who have received the party’s blessings are Julau MP Datuk Joseph Salang, Hulu Rajang MP Datuk Wilson Ugak Nyabong, Kanowit MP Aaron Ago Dagang and Sri Aman MP Datuk Masir Kujat.
The MPs of Selangau Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun and Lubok Antu Datuk William Nyallau Badak have yet to receive any public endorsement from the party.
Entulu, who is PRS deputy president was Selangau MP for the last three terms while Nyallau has been representing Lubok Antu since 2004.
Now, with this latest announcement by Masing, it is quite obvious that the two are not in PRS’ recommended candidate list, and thus highly likely to be offloaded in the upcoming GE14.
Meanwhile, it has been speculated lawyers Rita Insol and Robert Pasang Alam will be replacing Entulu and Nyallau respectively. — DayakDaily
