KUCHING, June 13 — The Sarawak  United People’s Party (SUPP) has set a two-week deadline for its branches to submit their preferred candidates to contest in the state elections due next June.

Keen to avoid a repeat of their near wipeout in 2011, party president Dr Sim Kui Hian is putting pressure on party mates to come up with their best candidates.

“They have to submit the names as soon as possible; by the end of this month to be exact,” he told reporters after chairing a three-hour central working committee meeting here.

“It is irresponsible of me, as the party president, to say that I do not have the names when I am asked about the list by the Barisan Nasional leadership when the state polls are called,” he added.

Based on the 2011 state elections, SUPP is expected to contest 19 out of 71 state seats in the next round.

Dr Sim said the party needed to prepare early and ensure the candidates passed scrutiny, noting that the party suffered previously because the central leadership had ignored the views of the grassroots.

The wrong choices of candidates and internal squabbles were cited by the party in a post mortem of its crushing defeat in the previous state polls.

“We want to change that by asking them to submit the name list and at the same time, the central leadership is also having its own list just to make sure that we get the best candidates,” he said.

In the 2011 state election, SUPP lost 13 out of 19 seats it contested, mainly to the opposition DAP.