PENAMPANG: United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok is confident that the party’s candidates will deliver all their seats to the Barisan Nasional (BN) this Sunday.
His confidence stems from the support UPKO is receiving from the people in the four parliamentary and six state constituencies it is contesting in the 13th general election.
UPKO will be defending all the 10 seats it won in the 12th general election namely the parliamentary constituencies of Penampang, Tuaran, Ranau and Putatan as well as Moyog, Bingkor, Paginatan, Nabawan, Kuala Penyu and Kuamut state seats.
“Yes we are confident to win all the four parliamentary and six state seats,” he said when asked if UPKO, after more than 10 days of campaigning and going by the support of the people, is confident of winning all the seats it is contesting in.
“I have visited all the areas and I am confident that we will be able to deliver all the seats to BN. I will be visiting Tamparuli today — I have been told that our campaign in Tuaran is going smoothly and I am confident we will be successful,” he told a press conference after receiving applications from 302 new members, including 25 former Sabah STAR members, yesterday.
On the membership applications, Dompok pointed out that the applicants are mostly from the Kapayan constituency and it reflects that UPKO’s campaign is going very well because not only are people expressing support when they are voting but they are actually applying to be members of the party.
“It augurs well in our campaign this election and I am confident that we will be able to get the support of Penampang for this election,” he said.
A total of 302 people applied to join UPKO and of the total 183 are from the Chinese community and this shows that what UPKO has and is struggling for is accepted by all the races in the state, he said.
“If you look the history of the state politics, the name UPKO has been synonymous with the formation of Malayisia and I think people will look upon that, upon the party as one of the promoters of the Malaysian nation. I think it is in this respect that people are interested in joining us and we are certainly happy that they are with us in the struggle.
“Our party is open to everybody. The name is historical and our objective covers the aspirations of all Malaysians. In fact what we have been striving before, the settling of the issues of illegal immigrants is something that is important for all Malaysians,” he said.
He added that UPKO’s works towards mission schools as well as its commitment to see another Chinese school in Penampang are of interest to many in the Chinese community.