Stubborn state BN leaders hampering Sarawak polls plan, says Adenan

Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem says certain quarters within the state Barisan Nasional (BN) are too stubborn and are slowing down the ruling coalition's preparations for the coming state election. Internal bickering was BN's biggest challenge, Adenan said, as there were stubborn parties who did not want to compromise on seat allocations and went ahead to to announce their own candidates. "They can say whatever they want, in the end, I will be the person who decide," Adenan said in a live interview over national broadcaster RTM's TV1 channel last night, without mentioning any names. Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) has so far refused to allow any of its 19 seats to be contested by its splinter party, United People's Party (UPP), and has announced many of their candidates in the local media recently. Similarly, Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) vows not to give away any of its eight seats to Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras). Adenan had said he would not allow multiple BN candidates to contest in one seat and that he only wanted winnable candidates. "It is useless to give the seat to a component party and they lose. Better to have winnable candidates who may win. That is our approach." He said these winnable candidates could be direct independent candidate who support BN. "Yes, there are independents. These are not independents who do not support BN. They will support BN and after that they can choose which BN component parties to join." When asked by the moderator Sayed Munawar whether these independent candidates could be from the splinter parties, Adenan said, "If they want, lah". He said the fact that many wanted to be BN candidates showed the significance of using BN's logo and brand among the people. During the one-hour interview, Adenan also spoke of helping the poor living in rural area and asked for a bigger mandate in the coming state election in order to achieve his goal. After lowering power tariffs, abolishing toll and reducing ferry fares, Adenan said he would abolish quit rent this March and look into to lowering assessment rates for those living the rural areas. – February 27, 2016.]]>