By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Oct 21: Party Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) is ready to recapture the parliamentary seats of Julau, Sri Aman, Selangau and Lubok Antu should a snap general election be called.
PRS president Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing said the party has identified potential candidates for the four traditional parliamentary seats which it held before losing them to Pakatan Harapan and independent candidates in the last general election.
Without revealing the names of the candidates for the four Parliamentary seats, he said the party is ready in the event that the 15th general election is to be held simultaneously with the 12th Sarawak Election.
“Those (the four parliamentary candidates) we will nominate very soon. Those areas are supposed to be ours (PRS).
“Like in football, our reserve players are ready in those four areas,” he told DayakDaily after chairing the PRS supreme council meeting at the party’s headquarters here today.
Masing who is also Deputy Chief Minister however said the party will most likely retain its two incumbents for the two Parliamentary seats if it were to be held simultaneously with the 12th state election.
The two incumbents are Datuk Wilson Ugak Kumbong for the Hulu Rajang and Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang for the Kanowit seat.
Within the ruling party coalition, PRS has traditionally been allocated six seats including Julau, Sri Aman, Selangau, Lubok Antu, Kanowit and Hulu Rajang.
PRS lost Julau to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidate Larry Sng while losing Selangau to Bakelalan assemblyman Baru Bian who left PKR for Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB).
The party lost Sri Aman to PSB when its former vice president Dato Masir Kujat left and joined PSB.
Lubok Antu MP Jugah Muyang won the seat as an independent. He joined PKR at one time but later left the party, and resumed the status of an independent MP.
Meanwhile, Masing who is Baleh assemblyman is confident that the party will also be able to defend all its 11 state seats in the upcoming Sarawak election.
“Our (PRS) boys are quite confident that we will retain all the 11 seats. Now we do not know whether this (upcoming state) election will include the MPs (general election). But if it does, we also get ready,” he said.
He opined that the state election could be held by the end of this year. —DayakDaily
