By Jaythaleela K
MIRI , Nov 5: The urban seat of P219 Miri will witness a three-corner fight in the 15th General Election (GE15) after the Election Commission (EC) on Saturday received and approved the nomination submissions of three candidates from GPS-SUPP, PKR and PSB.
The three candidates are Cr Jeffery Phang from Sarawak United Peoples’ Party under Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS-SUPP), Chiew Choon Man from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Sarawak Bersatu’s (PSB) Datuk Lawrence Lai.
Candidates contesting for Miri seat arrived at the nomination centre at Miri Industrial Training Institute (ILP) in Senadin on Saturday.
This will be Phang, Lai and Chiew’s first time contesting in the seat.
Phang was accompanied by his proposer Deputy Mayor Julaihi Mohamad and seconder Riam Road Secondary school (RRSS) co-founder Datuk Seri Law Kiu Kiong.
Lai, a former Miri mayor and SUPP member prior to his decision to join PSB, is the most senior compared to Phang and Chiew in the race for the seat.
He was accompanied by his proposer, from Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) deputy director of media and publicity Leslie Ting and seconder Chin Fen Siong.
Miri seat has been held by the Opposition, former incumbent Dr Michael Teo of PKR since 2013.
However, for this 15th general election (GE15), PKR chairman Dato Sri Anwar Ibrahim has replaced Dr Teo with a newcomer – Chiew Choon Man, 31, citing that the party needed a younger candidate to ensures it retains the seat.
Former incumbent Miri MP Dr Teo also unexpectedly turned up this morning at the nomination centre with a large group of Pakatan Harapan (PH) supporters.
Teo’s presence this morning was a surprise as he had stayed silent for days after his name was dropped by the party’s top leadership to retain Miri.
“I flew from Kuching this morning to show my support to our candidate (Chiew),” disclosed Dr Teo when met at the nomination centre.
“This time around we will focus on putting up our campaign banners along all the road junctions, apart from organising several ceramahs,” said Teo.
SUPP is fielding Phang, 48, an architect by profession to help GPS/SUPP to wrestle back the seat from PKR.
Phang was accompanied by three SUPP chairmen from Senadin, Piasau and Pujut (Datuk Sri Lee Kim Shin, Datuk Sebastian Ting and Mayor Adam Yii). — DayakDaily
