Democracy Sabah enters fray to promote straight fights

KOTA KINABALU: A new group Democracy Sabah or Desah has been set up to promote a one-on-one fight between the main opposition parties and Barisan Nasional in the next general election.

Headed by former Sabah State Secretary Tan Sri Simon Sipaun, the group aims to promote straight contests as a step towards ensuring a two-party system in a state where crowded fields are seen in most elections.



“It is very confusing to the voting public. Many people are talking about the need for one-on-one contests and we have formed this ad hoc committee to promote the idea,” Sipaun said here yesterday.

Stressing that they were a non-partisan group, the former Suhakam vice-chairman said their immediate target was to work towards ensuring at least one-third of the 25 Parliament seats in the state were straight fights between the opposition parties and the ruling Barisan.

“It can be a free-for-all for the remaining seats as we don't think we have the time to cover all constituencies,” he said, adding that the 60 state seats would be left to the parties to iron out themselves.

Sipaun said he had spoken to leaders from the opposition who agreed to the idea but they seemed to have difficulty in convincing their members at the grassroots.

He said the proposal was to pre-select potential candidates through debate and door-to-door polling of 1,000 randomly selected voters in any constituency.

“It can be done, is economical and a professional method to choose the candidate,” he said, adding that parties in the pre-selection process would enjoy the backing of the public and community leaders.

Asked which were the opposition parties being considered, he said they were local-based Sabah Progressive Party and State Reform Party as well as the national-based PKR and DAP.

The national and local-based opposition parties in the state have been at loggerheads over seat-sharing although leaders have been publicly calling for seat talks.