KOTA KINABALU: DESAH, a civil society group formed recently to campaign for one-to-one contests in the coming general election, will hold its first debate among party representatives at 7pm on May 9 at the Penampang Library as part of its candidate pre-selection process.
All political parties in Penampang have been contacted and they all welcome the debate and are finalizing their debater, who will be announced later.
It is understood that there are numerous debaters in each party trying to get selected by their respective party.
The debate is organized to enable voters to make informed choices through watching the performance by the various party representatives or potential candidates.
A door-knock poll will then be carried out to identify the best candidate to take on BN candidate at the general election.
The debate will consist of a few stages: the party representatives will be given equal time to explain their party platforms on relevant issues, then they each will be given a chance to challenge the other candidates.
Each candidate will be given time to answer those challenges directed at him/her. The debate will then allow members of the audience to question the party representatives.
A panel of neutral analysts will present a summary of the debate at the end.
Currently the party debates are being pursued at two other constituencies due to popular demands.
Luyang assemblywoman Melanie Chia said she welcomes debate with any opponents for her state constituency. Inanam challenger Daniel John Jambun from STAR party has thrown a debate challenge to all interested candidates from other parties.
The organizer has shortlisted a few hot topics for future debates: local or national parties – which one to vote? What are the best ways to solve high youth unemployment in Sabah that caused braindrain? NCR: rights of Orang Asal or development? Is it time for more women MPs & Assemblypersons? How best to tackle illegal migrants issue?
The topics range from political, economic, social to gender issues, and cover interests of major profiles of the electorate: youth, women, urban and rural folks as well as general public.
Desah chairman Tan Sri Simon Sipaun said that the debate challenge had pushed parties to take identification of candidates more seriously so that they would not complain of inadequate campaign time later.
He said that election is a serious matter ¨C so the parties should agree to one-to-one contest in all constituencies as early as possible so that each side has enough time to conduct their campaign to reach all voters.
Only then the voters can make informed choice of the best representatives to speak for them at State and Federal level.