POLLING DAY HELLO: BN-SUPP Wilfred Yap (second right) and DAP Chong Chieng Jen (left) greeting voters for Kota Sentosa constituency at SRB Sam Hap Hin yesterday.
KUCHING: DAP Sarawak believes that the party’s defeat in the state election could be due to low voter turnout.
“Based on preliminary assessment, the low turnout rate could be a reason. The Adenan factor could also be a factor but not a big one. There are some votes that went back to BN but the number is not very large.
“We will provide detailed analysis after our post mortem,” its chairman Chong Chieng Jen told a press conference last night.
He did not discount the possibility of money politics in certain areas.
DAP Sarawak lost five of its 12 seats; namely Batu Kawah, Repok, Meradong, Dudong and Piasau.
Chong said the party accepted the defeat and the decision of the people, but stressed it would not stop their struggle.
“DAP Sarawak lost the battle and we accept the defeat. We will do soul searching and analyse the results and factors to improve ourselves.
“We will return to the battle ground with a stronger force. The defeat this time will not deter our determination in providing an alternative government to the people of Sarawak.
“We will get our acts together and move on. We will continue to provide better check and balance on government’s policies and actions,” he said.
On whether the party’s decision to go rural was a right one, Chong said it was a right direction.
“Rural politics is never easy, but our direction is right. We should never be content with the 12 seats we had. To venture into rural is a right action and we have to learn our lesson from our defeat.
“We have to come up with new methods in breaking the barrier into the rural areas,” he said.
Also present were Wong King Wei and Violet Yong, who retained Padungan and Pending respectively.