G5 has no claim on seats won under SPDP ticket — Gines

KUCHING: No one should undermine SPDP’s legitimate claim on seats allocated to the party including Tasik Biru, said SPDP Tasik Biru treasurer Gines Ruwia.

He cited the example of the recent general election during which a candidate from SPDP Anthony Nogeh Gumbek was chosen to represent BN instead of former partyless elected representative Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe who ran in Mas Gading. The subsequent victory of the BN-SPDP candidate proved the party has right over state seat Tasik Biru.

“In Mas Gading or Tasik Biru genuine loyal BN supporters are members of BN component parties, not those who call themselves G5 and its supporters or people said to be in cahoots with them. In the last GE the BN candidate won, proving BN as a popular and selling brand despite the continuous sabotage it has endured on a consistent basis from the group and even some well-known personality,” he said yesterday.

Gines, who is also SPDP supreme council member, was responding to a recent statement by a supporter of the yet-to-be-registered BN Club, village headman Joseph Ranger, in urging the partyless representatives to join a BN component party other than SPDP urgently.

The four assemblypersons who became partyless after being sacked by SPDP for gross insubordination are Datuk Peter Nansian (Tasik Biru), Datuk Sylvester Entri (Marudi), Rosey Yunus (Bekenu) and Paulus Palu Gumbang (Batu Danau). They had won their respective seats in the 2011 state elections on the BN-SPDP tickets but were booted out of SPDP in November 2011 and January 2012.

Gines said any call for these individuals to join another BN party and take the SPDP seats with them is ‘absurd and utter nonsense’.

“These constituencies are allocated to SPDP so only it has the legitimate claim on the seats. They may claim themselves BN-friendly, but one cannot discount the fact that once you challenge a genuine BN candidate then surely what you said and did is directly or indirectly against the top BN leadership. This is only natural and therefore one cannot describe them as truthful in their claim as loyal BN supporters,” he said.

Recently, SPDP president Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom said that the party would be fielding seven new faces in the coming 11th state election

This prompted Nansian, who often speaks on behalf of the partyless members, to say they would be joining other state BN component parties – PBB, SUPP or PRS – since the chances of them returning to SPDP was nil.- theborneopost