Abg Johari: No calls yet from peninsula coalitions

KUCHING: Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) has yet to receive any call from top leaders of national coalitions to form the next federal government, said Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.

“I have not received any details yet from our friends in Peninsular Malaysia yet. So far, no one has contacted me because they are still counting the votes there,” the GPS chairman told a press conference at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching last night.

He was asked to comment on whether leaders from Barisan Nasional (BN), Perikatan Nasional (PN) or Pakatan Harapan (PH) had sought GPS’ support to form the next federal government.

Abang Johari believed GPS managed to secure its target of 23 out of 31 parliamentary seats this 15th General Election (GE15).

However, he said the results were still unofficial.

Abang Johari said he was satisfied with the number of seats won by GPS this time around.

“We managed to secure an increase in seats compared to the last general election where we had won 19 seats.

“Our women candidates all won in their respective seats including new faces in Batang Sadong (Rodiyah Sapiee) and Sri Aman (Dato Sri Doris Sophia Brodie) while our young candidate in Batang Lupar also secured a win for GPS,” he said.

He also said that Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) managed to win an additional seat for the party through Sarikei which was won by Dato Sri Huang Tiong Sii.

This was in addition to it defending its Serian seat through incumbent Dato Sri Richard Riot.

“This is one of the signs that Sarawak has a strong voice in this general election,” said Abang Johari.

On the seats which GPS did not manage to recapture such as Julau, he said it was unfortunate that its candidate Datuk Joseph Salang did not manage to wrest the seat from incumbent Larry Sng.

“We will have our postmortem to analyse all the seats we have contested but at the same time, we are also thankful that we managed to increase the number of seats including at Selangau and Lubok Antu.”

He said for seats that were lost, GPS has to accept that this was the decision of the people.

“We place our candidates in the respective seats in our hopes to win. This is politics,” he said.