Not all Sarawak DAP MPs will defend seats, says party chief

PETALING JAYA: DAP has confirmed that not all its former MPs in Sarawak will be defending their seats in the 15th general election (GE15).

Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen hinted that the party may drop those who did not perform during their term in office.

“The basic requirement of a candidate is to serve the people not only during the election period but before the elections,” The Borneo Post quoted the Sarawak Pakatan Harapan chief as saying.

“You can roughly know who those candidates are by looking at how active they are on the ground.”

He said this when sidestepping a question on whether he would be defending the Stampin parliamentary seat.

The other DAP MPs in Sarawak are Dr Kelvin Yii (Bandar Kuching), Alice Lau (Lanang), Oscar Ling (Sibu), Wong Ling Biu (Sarikei) and Mordi Bimol (Mas Gading).

Chong said the finalised list of candidates will be announced in Sibu on Oct 22 and in Kuching on Oct 23, adding that all the candidates had been notified of their selection before Parliament was dissolved.

In addition to the six seats, he said, the party will be fielding candidates in Serian and Bintulu.

“Previously, there was the Kapit seat but our grassroots members there felt that PKR had a better candidate and so we let them contest (there),” he said.

Chong also said DAP’s working relationship with PH component parties PKR and Amanah is strong and seat negotiations have been settled.

He said PKR will be contesting about 18 seats and Amanah in the remaining constituencies.

On the breakdown in talks with Parti Sarawak Bersatu, Chong said the objective should have been to defeat Gabungan Parti Sarawak and not to field candidates in constituencies controlled by allies. — Free Malaysia Today