By Karen Bong, Nur Ashikin Louis and Chris Bishop
KUCHING, Oct 18: This coming 15th General Election (GE15) will be Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) first major general electoral outing on its own without joining any coalition with parties from Peninsular Malaysia.
GPS chairman Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said the Sarawak coalition will use “Sarawak First” as its campaign tagline and will come up with its own manifesto and policy as it contests in all 31 parliamentary seats in Sarawak.
“GPS is ready for the election with all working committees having already been set up to carry out our responsibilities and tasks in all aspects.
“What Sarawak needs is a strong voice at the Parliament level,” he told a press conference after chairing the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Supreme Council Meeting and followed by a GPS Supreme Council Meeting at PBB headquarters here today.
The Premier of Sarawak pointed out that the seat allocations for GPS component parties comprising PBB, Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) have also been agreed upon.
“We will field candidates who have been agreed upon even though there are a few seats which we are still looking into since we do not know when the nomination day will be,” he added.
However, Abang Johari remained confident that GPS would carry the mandate from the people of Sarawak to continue its struggles, especially in actively getting involved in national policy-making.
Deputies Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas and Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan as well as SUPP president Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian, PDP president Dato Sri Tiong King Sing and PRS president Datuk Joseph Salang were among those present. — DayakDaily
