SIBU, Oct 20: Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) chances of wrestling back the Lanang and Sibu seats in the 15th General Election (GE15) should not be based purely on its overwhelming victory in the 2021 State Election.
GPS won 76 of the 82 seats, while local Opposition party Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) won four seats and DAP two.
“I won’t say GPS will come out strongly this time again even though we won handsomely in the last State Election,” said Deputy Minister for Public Health and Housing Michael Tiang after launching a street mural at Jalan Raminway Petronas kiosk today.
Tiang was of the opinion that the State Election and GE15 are different scenarios.
“This election will be very new to everyone as for the first time GPS is contesting on its own as a purely independent local party. Secondly, we have yet to know of the political inclination of a lot of new voters and whether they will come out to vote,” he said, alluding to the Undi18 Bill.
“We want to promote GPS among Sarawakians as we are on our own in the election. We want to make sure that we win to have a bigger and louder voice to fight for our rights in Parliament,” said Tiang, who is also Pelawan assemblyman.
He said if GPS could win two seats, development funds would flow in from the Federal side.
“We have four GPS assemblymen here with each contributing RM10 million, totaling RM40 million. But we also need funds for Federal roads and other projects. We need strong MPs to bring in Federal funds,” he said.
Touching on the street painting of frontliners at the petrol kiosk, he said the murals were commissioned to recognise their contributions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This mural which is the second one in Raminway is to beautify town buildings. There will be more to come as we have consent from some property owners already. We will do it together with Raminway Club,” said Tiang. — DayakDaily
