KUCHING: PKR’s candidate for the Balingian by-election will be decided based on the candidate’s ability to know the needs of the constituents, instead of his race and religion.
State PKR vice chairman See Chee How said his party’s stance was to serve the people of Balingian regardless of race and religion.
“Race and religion will not be a determining factor for our candidate for the Balingian by-election. In fact, our party doesn’t see race and religion as a factor as our main aim in fielding our candidate there is to provide better service needed by the people there,” See told The Borneo Post here yesterday.
See, who has been appointed as the director of operations for the by-election, revealed that his party had submitted three names to the party’s central political bureau for consideration.
“Two of the candidates are from Mukah, but all of them are Melanaus. What is important for us is to know what the people want. The BN (Barisan Nasional) has been there all these while, but development is still lacking.”
See, who is also Batu Lintang assemblyman, said his party would unveil its candidate in Mukah this weekend.
Unlike PKR, PBB would be fielding a Christian-Melanau to contest in the by-election, which was called following the resignation of its assemblyman Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud last month to become the Yang di-Pertua Negeri.
Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Adenan Satem announced here yesterday that the identity of their candidate would be unveiled by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin this Saturday.
Adenan said the decision to field a Christian-Melanau was to honour a “gentlemen’s agreement” that was established with the community in 1963.
It was agreed back then that one of the three elected representatives in Mukah would be a Christian from the local community.
Balingian is one of the two state seats under Mukah parliamentary constituency. The other is Dalat. Dalat is helmed by Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, who is a Muslim, while Mukah MP Dato Sri Dr Muhammad Leo Michael Toyad embraced Islam a few years ago.
The Election Commission has set March 17 for nomination day and March 29 for polling in the event of a contest. - theborneopost
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