Chong (centre) flanked by Baru (left) and Fidzuan at the press conference which was held at the State DAP headquarters this morning.
KUCHING: Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak has fully endorsed the announcement for Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (Tun M) to be prime minister and Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Ismail to be the deputy prime minister if the pact becomes the government after GE14.
PH Sarawak will also be supporting the call to seek royal pardon for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to set the stage for him to take over Tun Mahathir as the eighth prime minister.
The endorsement was announced by PH Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen alongside his deputies namely PKR Sarawak chairman Baru Bian and Amanah Sarawak chairman Fidzuan Zaidi at a press conference this morning.
“To topple UMNO, there is no better person than Tun Mahathir. He has the respect and confidence of the rural Malays which many other leaders in PH lack,” said Chong who is also state DAP chief at the press conference.
He added that not only has PH for the first time made history by announcing its prime minister’s candidate before the elections, the pact have also for the first time reached an agreement on seat allocations before the dissolution of Parliament and nomination day.
“For those who are suspicious of Tun Mahathir’s intention, let’s be rest assured that he cannot dominate over all the other parties. Unlike UMNO in BN, PPBM only contests 52 seats in the coming GE while UMNO holds 84 seats in BN,” said Chong.
Also speaking was Baru who said Tun M has strong leadership capabilities that have won the pact’s respect and confidence.
Another factor he added is that Tun M is able to unite the opposition parties as well as winning the hearts of the rural voters, especially in Semenanjung.
Meanwhile, the seat allocation among the PH parties are Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia with 52 seats, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (51), Democratic Action Party (35) and Parti Amanah Negara (27).