JULAU, April 26: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) is confident of retaining Julau in the 14th General Election (GE14) which will see polling on May 9.
Its president Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing said it would be an uphill battle for contender Larry Sng to unseat PRS Julau candidate Datuk Joseph Salang.
Larry, who is a former PRS deputy president was sacked by the party for insubordination. He then formed Sarawak Workers Party and became its president but resigned from the party during the 2016 state election.
Larry recently announced he would contest in Julau which was a seat his father Datuk Sng Chee Hua held prior to the 1999 general election, when Sng gave way to Salang.
Meanwhile, Salang, a four-term MP has been fielded in Julau since 1999. Prior to 2013, Salang was Deputy Minister for Energy, Water and Communications and later Deputy Information, Communication and Culture Minister.
After the 2013 general election, he was re-appointed again as a deputy minister, but which he turned down.
For four consecutive terms, Salang has been able to defend Julau with votes of not less than 9,000 except for the 2004 general election where his votes dropped to 8,388 but climbed up again to 10,351 in the 2008 general election.
According to the electoral roll gazetted on February 2018, there are a total of 25,429 voters in Julau. There are 159 Malay voters; 1,151 Chinese voters; seven Indian voters, 27 Sabahan Bumiputera voters, and the rest are Dayak voters.
“It will be an uphill battle for Larry to topple Salang or PRS or BN in Julau. Why he wants to contest in Julau is best known only to him and his father (Chee Hua),” said Masing
Among the speculated reasons was that prior to Salang standing in Julau, Sng had represented state BN in the area.
Masing who was in Julau drumming up support for Salang said something which had caught his eye was the fact that Larry had set up his service centre just next to Progressive Democratic Party’s (PDP, formerly known as Sarawak Progressive Democrative Party or SPDP) office.
“What caught my interest is Larry’s office is next to PDP’s office. I hope its just physical proximity and not the proximity of minds between of Larry and PDP!” said Masing in a statement today. — DayakDaily
