MIRI – Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) has named three city councillors as the party’s shortlisted candidates for the Miri parliamentary hot seat in the 15th general election.
SUPP, a component party of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) has nominated three male councillors – Leslie Lau, Jeffery Phang and Aries Leong are to contest the northern Sarawak seat.
SUPP secretary-general Datuk Sebastian Ting announced the three names today at a temple ceremony in Miri city.
“The party leadership will decide who among the three will be the final SUPP-GPS candidate for Miri,” he said.
Sarawak will only hold parliamentary polls in GE15 as it already held state polls last December.
For the Miri seat, Pakatan Harapan has renominated the incumbent MP Dr Michael Teo Yu Keng from PKR.
Dr Teo on September 18 confirmed with The Vibes that he will defend Miri where he has been MP for the past two terms.
He had also said that he expects to face a three-cornered fight with SUPP and a candidate from a pact formed by other local opposition parties.
These are Parti Sarawak Bersatu, Parti Bangsa Dayak Sarawak Baru, Parti Bumi Kenyalang, Sarawak for Sarawakians and Parti Aspirasi Sarawak, which have come to an agreement that they will support one candidate from among them to contest in Miri.
Miri is the oil capital of Sarawak and the northern economic hub of this vast state.
Dr Teo has defeated the candidate from SUPP over the past two general elections when SUPP was part of Barisan Nasional (BN) at the time. GPS was formed in 2019 after BN lost the federal government in GE14. – The Vibes, October 2, 2022