DAP to battle 10 seats in Sabah

They include the federal seats of Sandakan, Tenom and Kota Kinabalu

DAP national chairman Tan Kok Wai (5th from left) with (from left) Tan Lee Fatt, Phoong Jin Zhe, Chan Foong Hin, Sabah DAP chief Stephen Wong, state DAP adviser Jimmy Wong, Damansara Utama rep Yeo Bee Yin and DAP’s Kapayan candidate Jannie Lasimbang.

KOTA KINABALU: DAP is set to contest three parliamentary seats and seven state seats in Sabah in the coming polls.

DAP chairman Tan Kok Wai confirmed the candidates for the Kota Kinabalu federal constituency and two state seats of Luyang and Likas.

DAP will also contest the Sandakan and Tenom federal seats, and five other state seats: Sri Tanjong, Elopura, Tanjung Papat, Bingkor and Kapayan.

Tan said current Sri Tanjong assemblyman Chan Foong Hin, the Sabah DAP secretary, would swap seats with Kota Kinabalu MP Jimmy Wong, who is the state DAP adviser.

He said newcomers Phoong Jin Zhe and Tan Lee Fatt would run in Luyang and Likas respectively.

“We believe we will win all the constituencies because the momentum for change is beating very fast not only in the peninsula but Sabah as well,” he said.

Asked about the swap, Chan said the party felt he should serve as a parliamentarian to help implement the promises made in Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) manifesto for Sabah and Sarawak which he had helped prepare.

“The party decided that I should be in Parliament to carry out this task,” he said.

He said Wong could act as “check and balance” to Chief Minister Musa Aman’s state government since he was DAP’s first legislator in the Sabah assembly, if the party remained in the state opposition.

Wong was the Sri Tanjong rep from 2008 to 2013.

Meanwhile, Jimmy said it was better for him as a veteran politician to serve at the state level if the opposition took over the Sabah government.

The other Sabah DAP candidates announced previously include state chairman Stephen Wong and lawyer Noorita Sual for the parliamentary constituencies of Sandakan and Tenom.

Meanwhile, Calvin Chong Ket Kiun and Frankie Poon Ming Fung will stand in the state seats of Elopura and Tanjung Papat in Sandakan.

Former Sabah Bersih chairman Janie Lasimbang, who is the state DAP Women chief, will make her political debut when she runs for Kapayan, while Keningau DAP chairman Peter Saili will stand in the interior Bingkor state seat.

Newcomers feel pressure to deliver

Phoong, 29, said he was under pressure not only to deliver Luyang for PH but also secure it with a convincing margin.

“I will be very sorry if I cannot deliver because in the last election the Luyang constituents voted for DAP with a large majority,” he said.

In the last general election, DAP’s Hiew King Cheu wrested the seat from BN by winning with a 8,676-vote majority in a four-cornered contest, with the nearest rival being MCA’s Agnes Shim Tshin Nyuk.

Months later, Hiew quit DAP over a disagreement about who was to be the opposition chief in the state assembly.

In June 2014, he joined MCA, giving the party its sole Sabah state assembly seat.

Meanwhile, Tan Lee Fatt, the Sabah DAP assistant secretary, said he was confident of recapturing Likas due to the good working relationship with opposition Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan).

Ironically, DAP had won the seat in 2013 through Junz Wong who left the party in 2016 and later joined Warisan where he is now a vice-president.

Junz won the seat with a 5,652-vote majority, beating closest contender Chin Shu Ying of BN who collected 2,094 votes.

With Tan to be fielded in Likas, it would mean Junz would not defend the seat, in line with the electoral understanding between Warisan and PH to not contest against each other.

Sabah PKR chairman Christina Liew will defend the Api-Api seat, which is the remaining state seat in Kota Kinabalu. -FMT