UPP confident its direct BN candidates can win

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Lo (centre seated) speaks at the press conference. — Photo by Chimon Upon

Lo (centre seated) speaks at the press conference. — Photo by Chimon Upon

KUCHING: United People’s Party (UPP) is confident it can deliver the seven seats contested by the party’s former leaders as direct Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates in the state election.

Its secretary general George Lo said the party “is confident of winning” not just seven seats but eight if Meradong could be contested by its nominated candidate, James Wong Hua Kiong.

“We are full of confidence that we will deliver all of them. We will be able to have a 100 per cent win record for BN. We go in with that confidence,” he told a press conference at the party’s headquarters here yesterday.

The seven direct BN candidates are Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh (Bawang Assan), Datuk Dr Jerip Susil (Mambong), Dr Johnichal Rayong Ngipa (Engkilili), Ranum Mina (Opar), Datuk Tiong Thai King (Dudong), Dato Hii King Chiong (Pujut) and Dato Janet Lau (Pelawan).

Lo said UPP would apply for BN membership after the election.

However, he said unanimity would be required if UPP was to be accepted into the BN fold.

To a question, he said: “Only if someone convinces all the other (component) parties to agree to it.”

He then said UPP’s “focus is on the election and win the maximum number of seats.”

“If you win a lot of seats, you are in a better position to apply for membership. If you are given eight seats and you win only two seats, it is very hard to say anything. If you are given eight seats and win seven or eight seats, then that is a different story.”

He added that UPP had not applied for BN membership as of yesterday.

When asked earlier whether he was the party’s acting president following the resignation of Wong, Lo said: “Temporarily, myself together with the remaining central committee (CC) members will be holding the fort.”

He declined to be called the ‘acting president’ as he reasoned that the party would have to call for a CC meeting to discuss the matter.

“I will certainly convene a CC meeting given that we have just received the resignation letters (from the seven leaders who were announced as direct BN candidates on Wednesday and Thursday). It (the meeting) will be quite soon and it won’t be that soon. Because as far as we are concerned, the priority now is the election.”

He said UPP received the seven resignation letters on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

Asked what should happen to UPP if their former leaders decided to join other BN component parties after they won the election, Lo said: “The chief minister is clear that they can join any party that is loyal to BN.”

“The chief minister has said to us, there is no point speculating now because if you don’t win the constituency, it does not matter where you go after that. He told us the important thing is get out there and win the seats that you are now nominated to contest on behalf of BN.”

Whether UPP would support SUPP during the election campaign, he said “we will certainly support them if they ask us for our support.”

“But by the same token, we would expect them to support us in the state election. Support is a two-way street. If they support us, we will certainly support them. If they put in a request for us to support any constituency, we will support them.”

Asked how UPP would be supporting their direct BN candidates, Lo said all members would be mobilised to campaign for them using the ‘dacing’ symbol.

“Our people will be wearing BN colours and uniform. We will be provided with those in the campaigning. We have been told not to use UPP, we respect that.”