Adenan hints of Sarawak elections soon

KUCHING - Sarawak chief minister Adenan Satem has hinted of state elections within the coming months, possibly by March, saying that the state assembly sitting beginning tomorrow would be the last one before the elections.

The state assembly’s term expires in June next year.

Adenan, who is president of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, said there might be 10 new candidates to be fielded by his party, five of whom would contest in the 11 new constituencies created by the Election Commission.

PBB will probably be contesting in 40 seats; there may be 10 new faces, five for the new seats and of course there are those (incumbents) who have indicated their desire to retire,” he said after chairing a PBB Supreme Council meeting today.

He said PBB might contest more than five of the new seats, based on its large membership and support, but had decided to share them with other component parties of the state Barisan Nasional.

Adenan said a coalition dispute between the Sarawak United People’s Party, United People’s Party, Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party and Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak would be resolved before nomination day.

When pressed on the date of the state elections, and told about speculation that it would be held in March, Adenan said: “You can choose to believe in rumours or you don’t believe in that, but this is coming from the horse’s mouth”, Bernama reported.

He said the PBB Supreme Council had discussed preparations for the elections and allocated responsibilities to several senior members. Twelve committees had been set up to run the PBB election campaign, headed by Alfred Jabu, Abang Johari Tun Openg and several others.

Adenan also chaired a pre-council meeting of the Barisan Nasional ahead of tomorrow’s assembly sitting, which discussed opposition motions expected to be introduced for debate in the state legislature.

“We have a few surprises for them (opposition) which they might not anticipate,” he said. The sole order of business was the Supply Bill, he said.

Adenan thanked members of Parliament who had voted in favour of increasing the number of seats in the state legislature.

“This will ensure better representation for people in the rural areas and easier for development to be brought to them as Sarawak is the biggest state in the whole federation.

And we deserve to have more seats than the other states, not only in terms of population, distances and accessibility,” he said, Bernama reported.