Datuk Paul Igai
KUCHING: Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) is hopeful that the Barisan Nasional top leadership would field its nominee to defend Saratok in the coming 14th General Election (GE14).
Its senior vice president Datuk Paul Igai said for now PDP has full trust in BN’s top leadership to resolve the candidacy issue in the constituency.
“As we are too close to the election, it’s better for us not to comment too much on this because don’t want to rock the BN’s boat.
“But we are quite confident that our nominee will be pick because in the spirit of BN we will stick to the power sharing,” he told The Borneo Post today.
He said this when asked to comment on the report in the news portal that Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom was hoping that BN will nominate him to defend his Saratok seat in GE14, as he is actually a Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) member.
Igai said for now nobody knows if Mawan is really the nominee of PBB.
“At the moment, we just have to wait for the official announcement of BN’s top leadership. As far as PDP is concerned, with the genuine help of all component parties in BN, the nominee from PDP should be able to win the Saratok seat,” he said.
Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president and Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing when asked to comment on the same issue acknowledged that Saratok is PDP’s seat.
“I think Mawan closes his chance to be re-nominated by announcing publicly that he is a PBB member,” he said.
Mawan, the former state minister revealed that he has been a PBB member since 2016 after resigning as president of the pro-Barisan Nasional Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras).
However, he only revealed his membership on Monday after his political affiliation was questioned.
Prior to joining Teras, he was president of PDP, a component of the state BN.
Mawan, who was state Minister of Social Development prior to the 2016 state election, said he is also bringing his Pakan seat to PBB with him.
He won the Pakan seat in the 2016 state election as BN’s direct candidate.