KUCHING, Oct 18 — Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) will announce the names of its 31 candidates for the 15th general election (GE15) a few days before Nomination Day, its chairman Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg said today.
He said he could not announce the names yet as the Election Commission (EC) has not fixed the nomination and polling dates of GE15.
“We will call you when I want to announce the names of the candidates,” he told reporters after chairing the GPS supreme council meeting at the PBB party headquarters in Bako, near here.
“Of course, I have to inform the public as to who our candidates are.”
He added that the list of names, which would include new faces, was still being finalised.
Abang Johari, who is also Sarawak premier, said the four component parties of GPS have finalised the allocation of seats that each party will contest in GE15.
He said GPS will contest all 31 seats in the general election under the theme “Sarawak First”.
He said GPS will issue its own manifesto, the first time since the national election that “we are contesting on our own.”
“We are in fact ready to face the election and we have formed a working committee to enable us to carry out our tasks from all aspects that were given to us in the last state election,” he said.
“What is needed is that for GPS to have a strong voice in Parliament.”
He said he believes that the mandate given to GPS in last year’s state election will be used to continue its struggle, particularly in terms of its involvement in national policies.
“Apart from defending our state’s rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), there are also three important matters that have yet to be finalised.
“These include Article 112D of the Federal Constitution relating to the special federal grants for Sarawak because we want it to be based on a certain set of formula,” he said.
He said the other is related to the administration of the High Court in Sabah and Sarawak.
He said the state government wants the High Court to revert to the High Court of Borneo.
“Now, we don’t have the High Court of Borneo anymore. Instead, we have the High Court in Sabah and Sabah. So we just want to have a look at it,” he said, adding the separation of the High Court of Borneo and High Court of Malaysia was spelled out in the Inter-Government Committee (IGC) Report.
