Opposition must work together to avoid losing deposits – DAP

TAWAU: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sabah secretary cum Sri Tanjong assemblyman Chan Foong Hin has echoed Lim Kit Siang’s call to urge all opposition parties to work together in Sabah to avoid multiple cornered fights from repeating again in the coming 14th General Election (GE).

Chan said in the 2013 GE, the statistics for Sabah showed many incidences of candidates losing their deposits in multicornered fights.

He said for the 25 parliamentary seats in Sabah, there was one seat with a sevencornered fight in Kalabakan, two seats with five-cornered fights, 13 seats with four and eight seats with three-cornered fights.

Out of the total 93 candidates, 41 candidates or 44 percent lost their deposits, he said yesterday.

Chan said for the 60 state seats, there were one seat with a sevencornered fight in Sulabayan, six seats with six-cornered fights, 19 seats five-cornered, 24 seats four-cornered, nine seats threecornered and only one seat that saw a one-to-one fight in Tanjung Batu.

Out of the total of 263 candidates, 160 or 60 percent lost their deposits, he said.

He said most of the candidates that lost their deposits were local party candidates and independent candidates.

Chan said thereby it is important that opposition parties work together to avoid this phenomenon from repeating again.

He said the coming GE 14 is crucial for Sabah and Malaysia’s destiny as the people cannot afford to lose the golden opportunity to change the government in Putrajaya.