By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Oct 27: Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing says the party has yet to endorse Edwin Bandang’s candidacy for Pakan seat in the coming Sarawak Election.
He said the party welcomes any proposal or recommendation from the grassroots level and he thanked them for their support towards the party.
“But none of them should simply announce their candidate publicly in that way.
“That is improper and it isn’t the way our party works,” said Tiong in response to the recent announcement made by its Pakan division.
PDP Pakan division chief Ting Kew Ming had publicly endorsed Edwin as the party’s candidate for Pakan.
He said the decision was made totally based on the candidate’s suitability and performance, constituents’ preference, solidarity of PDP and the spirit of togetherness among GPS component parties in Pakan.
In response, Tiong who is also Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to China, denied such a decision in a statement today.
“The above decision isn’t coming from the party nor the Supreme Council,” said Tiong, without further elaboration.
Pakan is currently held by Tan Sri William Mawan, who was formerly Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) president.
Mawan quit SPDP in 2014 to form a new party called Party Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras).
During the 2016 Sarawak Election, as Teras was not a component party of the then Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN), Mawan had to contest the seat under BN as a direct candidate and won the seat.
He later announced that he had joined Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) in 2016.
Meanwhile, following Mawan quitting SPDP, Tiong took over the presidency. In 2017, the party renamed itself as PDP, with the intention to spread its wings to Peninsular Malaysia.
Within the former Sarawak BN structure, PDP was allocated eight seats including Tarik Biru, Marudi, Meluan, Bekenu, Batu Danau, Pakan, Krian and Ba Kelalan.
However, it lost Bekenu, Batu Danau and Pakan to PBB, following Mawan, Bekenu assembly woman Rosie Yunus and Batu Danau assemblyman Paulus Palu Gumbang joining PBB after the 2016 Sarawak Election.
It also lost Krian and Ba Kelalan to Datuk Ali Biju (who contested under Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) but now joined Party Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia) and Baru Bian (who also contested under PKR but is now a member of Parti Bersatu Sarawak). — DayakDaily
