PDP hopes to defend Saratok for BN, confident top leaders will resolve issue
KU CHIN G: Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) is hopeful that the top leadership in Barisan Nasional would field its nominee to defend Saratok for BN in the coming 14th General Election (GE14).
Its senior vice president Datuk Paul Igai, however, said the party had full trust in BN’s top leadership to resolve the candidacy issue in the constituency.
“As we are too close to the election, it’s better for us not to comment too much on this because we don’t want to rock the BN boat.
“But we are quite confident that our nominee will be picked because in the spirit of BN we will stick to the power sharing,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
He was asked to comment on a report in a news portal that the incumbent MP Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom hoped to be renominated by BN to defend his Saratok seat in GE14 as he was a Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu ( PBB) member.
To this, Igai said he was not certain if Mawan would be nominated by PBB.
“At the moment, we just have to wait for the official announcement of BN’s top leadership.
“As far as PDP is concerned, with the genuine help of all component parties in BN, the nominee from PDP should be able to win the Saratok seat,” he said.
Parti Rakyat Sarawak ( PRS) president and Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing, when asked to comment on the same issue, acknowledged that Saratok is PDP’s seat.
“I think Mawan closed his chance to be re- nominated by announcing publicly that he is a PBB member,” he said.
Mawan, a former state minister revealed that he had been a PBB member since 2016 after resigning as president of the pro-BN Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras).
However, he only revealed his membership on Monday after his political af f i liation was questioned.
Prior to joining Teras, he was president of SPDP (now renamed PDP), a component of the state BN.
Mawan, who was minister of social development prior to the 2016 state election, said he is also bringing his Pakan state seat to PBB with him.
He won the Pakan seat in the 2016 state election as direct BN candidate.