Stampin seat ripe for the picking for SUPP
Batu Kawah and Batu Kitang are SUPP strongholds but Kota Sentosa was held by DAP under its Sarawak chairman Chong Chien Jen for three terms from 2006 until 2021 when Wilfred Yap finally won it for SUPP.
BATU Kitang assemblyman Lo Khere Chiang declared at a function on July 26 Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) will wrest back the Stampin parliamentary seat from DAP in the 15th General Election (GE15).
Lo’s optimism is well founded as for the first time since 2006 all the three state seat –, Batu Kitang, Batu Kawah and Kota Sentosa – within Stampin parliamentary constituency are under SUPP.
Batu Kawah and Batu Kitang are SUPP strongholds but Kota Sentosa was held by DAP under its Sarawak chairman Chong Chien Jen for three terms from 2006 until 2021 when Wilfred Yap finally won it for SUPP.
Lo’s declaration led to speculations that he is interested to stand in Stampin as he was overlooked for a ministerial post in the state cabinet after the last state election and he could see victory in Stampin as a route to at least a federal deputy ministerial post.
This speculation was reinforced by the recommendation of SUPP Batu Kitang branch for him to stand in Stampin.
However, Lo put paid to that speculation on October 16 when he told The Borneo Post that his president Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian is the most winnable candidate to represent Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) in Stampin in GE15.
It is likely that Dr Sim would want a second bite at the cherry in Stampin as in 2018 in the last General Election (GE14) SUPP tried to wrest the seat from DAP by fielding him but he was defeated by Chong by 14,221 votes.
The obstacle to Dr Sim’s Stampin candidacy is the GPS policy of not allowing a state assemblyman to hold both parliamentary and state seats.
However, that ruling was broken when Bintulu MP, Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) president Dato Seri Tiong King Sing stood in Dudong in the last state election and won.
The precedent set by Tiong could pave the way for state assemblymen to stand in parliamentary seats in GE15.
Ironically, the objection to Dr Sim standing in Stampin came from the Batu Kawah SUPP branch in his own state constituency.
On the same day that Lo touted Dr Sim as the most winnable candidate for Stampin, the Batu Kawah branch chairman Lim Ah Ted said that the SUPP president was not one of the candidates recommended by the branch to stand in that constituency.
Lim said the branch had recommended Tan Kai, the Party’s former Youth chief,to stand in Stampin as Dr Sim is already the state Deputy Premier.
If Tan was chosen it would be his second foray into the parliamentary election.
In 2013, he stood against Chong in the Kuching in GE13 and lost.
It was reported that the Kota Sentosa SUPP branch had also decided on their recommendation for the party’s candidate for Stampin but has yet to announce its decision to the press.
Surprisingly, the SUPP Stakan branch is the first to announce its preferred candidate for Stampin.
On July 19 the branch endorsed its chairman, Datuk Sim Kian Chiok, for the Stampin parliamentary seat.
Despite being the first to throw his hat into the ring, Sim faces an uphill task in securing GPS candidacy for the Stampin seat as the Stakan SUPP branch is in the neighbouring Samarahan parliamentary constituency.
In the face of nominations from the three Stampin SUPP branches and the possibility of Dr Sim standing there, Sim’s chances of getting the nod for the seat is very slim.
Stampin parliamentary seat which has 120,334 electors is one of the seats traditionally allocated to SUPP in the GPS parliamentary constituencies distribution.
SUPP won the seat in 1999 and held on to it for three terms under Datuk Yong Khoon Seng until 2013 when DAP’s newcomer Julian Tan Kok Ping won the seat beating Yong with a comfortable majority of 18,670 votes.
However, with SUPP capturing all the three state seats in the constituency in the last state election any candidate SUPP nominates to stand there would stand a great chance of wresting the seat from DAP.
Stampin Parliamentary constituency is ripe for the picking for SUPP.
* Francis Chan is The Borneo Post’s former executive editor.
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