SIBU – Fresh faces will be the flavour of this state election, as Sarawak DAP will not be fielding all the same incumbents to defend their seats.
With polls expected later this month or early December, state DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen confirmed in a press conference yesterday that not all incumbents will contest to retain their seats.
However, he stopped short at revealing the list of candidates, saying: “We have all the potential candidates. I’d be failing in my duty if I did not have the potential candidates by now.”
“Everything will be done in the next 58 days, and who will contest where, we will know earlier than that.”
DAP, which is in the Pakatan Harapan coalition with PKR and Amanah, will be contesting 26 seats while PKR will be taking on 47 and Amanah nine. This was announced on January 2 during a PH press conference.
Currently, DAP has only five state representatives. It had seven previously until Pujut rep Ting Tiong Choon was disqualified on February 11, 2020, and Padungan’s Wong King Wei quit the party on July 26, 2020.
On how the party will go about engaging with the voter bank under the current pandemic climate and restrictive SOPs which the Election Commission will impose, Chong said: “DAP will have meetings to discuss a new strategy to overcome the current situation.”
He said the current standard operating procedures for the election forbids campaigning and house-to-house visits as imposed in the Melaka election, which has put all opposition parties in the state on a tailspin.
He also expressed hope that Sarawak will not return to the Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud era when he was the chief minister – where there was a total absence of opposition in the state. – The Vibes, November 7, 2021
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