SNAP lays claims on Engkilili, Layar

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Party eyes two state seats it considers its traditional hunting ground

KUCHING: In what appears to be a strong hint to members of the opposition coalition to stay off Engkilili and Layar, Sarawak National Party (SNAP) yesterday said it will be putting its candidates in these two seats in the next state election.SNAP, which is forging cooperation with Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) in an opposition front called Pakatan Rakyat, had always contested in these two seats and would continue to do so in the future, its president Edwin Dundang Bugak said, when contacted yesterday.

He said any other parties wishing to contest in the two seats must be ready to face SNAP, Dundang said, adding that the party will not back out even if it means having to fend off attacks from several fronts.

“In the case of Engkilili, the winning candidate in the 2006 state election was from SNAP, there is no reason why SNAP will not contest the seat in the next state election,” Dundang said.

He was referring to Dr Johnical Rayong Ngipa who, after winning Engkilili on a SNAP ticket, quit the party and declared himself a BN-friendly assemblyman. Dr Rayong has since been knocking on BN’s door with a lot of encouragement from Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) whose candidate he knocked out in 2006 election.

Rayong garnered 3,442 votes compared to SUPP’s Johnathan Krai Pilo with 3,016 votes.

Speaking of SNAP’s interest in Layar, Dundang said: “Layar used to be SNAP’s traditional seat and in 2006 we put up our Youth chief Dayrell Walter Entrie to go against the incumbent (Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang),” he said.

Jabu beat Dayrell with a 2,677-vote majority. Also defeated was independent Peter John Jaban.

On other seats, Dundang said SNAP would only be interested if it has better candidates compared to the other opposition parties.

“No point contesting if you know the candidate is there just to make the number. SNAP contests only to win,” he said.

Asked to comment on the other opposition parties, Dundang said: “I can only speakfor SNAP.”

SNAP contested 29 seats in 2006. Except for Engkilili, the rest was all disastrous outing.