KUCHING: The Sarawak United Peoples’ Party’s (SUPP) candidates for the next state election must be well accepted within the party, said SUPP president Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan on Thursday night.
He said this is because SUPP has to retain its 30 per cent member-voters — voters who are also SUPP members ñ who are vital for the party to win any seat.
“If we fail to get this 30 per cent of votes, any candidate will give us a problem. The point here is, our candidates must gain consensus within the party.
“So any of our candidates must be able to secure the 30 per cent member votes,” he said when commenting on whether the party would accept Kuching South Mayor James Chan, who is not a member of any political party, as SUPP’s candidate for Padungan.
Dr Chan, who is Deputy Chief Minister, said all candidates must be SUPP members.
He refused to comment on the mayor’s chances of being named as the candidate.
On whether Sim Kian Keok of SUPP Kuching branch could win the Padungan candidacy, he said: “We should not be discussing this because it works something like an auto-virus, that if you touch on it, problems arise.”
He said an appropriate candidate would be elected from among the around 300 potential and young members of the branch.
Dr Chan did not deny that SUPP was facing some difficulty in selecting a candidate for Meradong as well. However, he ruled out the possibility of Pelagus assemblyman Larry Sng being a potential candidate for the constituency.
“He does not have the ground support there and most importantly, he is not a member of SUPP,” explained Dr Chan.
Sng, who is Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office, has been partyless since he was sacked from Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) for insubordination in 2008.