GE15: Baram may see four-cornered fight

(From left) Anyi, Roland and Sawing.

MIRI (Oct 20): A four-cornered fight is expected in Baram between Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) and an independent candidate in the coming 15th General Election (GE15).

GPS is expected to field incumbent Dato Anyi Ngau while PKR has named its Sarawak chairman Roland Engan as its potential candidate for the seat.

For PBDS which recently changed its name from PBDS Baru, the party had confirmed retired headmaster Sawing Kedit as its candidate for the seat.

Sawing, in an interview recently, informed that he wanted to bring about change in Baram, which he said had been lacking in many aspects of development.

“The Dayak community continues to be deprived of their rights to many basic infrastructure and hence I wanted to create change by taking part in this coming GE.

“I would also like to be giving emphasis on education if I were to be given the opportunity to serve the community in Baram,” he said.

Sawing was also an election candidate for Marudi state seat in the last state election.

Apart from the three parties, it is also rumoured that an independent candidate is expected to join the race for the Baram seat, making it a four-cornered fight.

For the record, Anyi won the Baram seat in the 2013 GE with a razor thin majority of 194 votes when he polled 9,182 votes in a three-cornered fight against Roland who garnered 8,988 votes and independent Patrick Sibat who received 363 votes.

In the 2018 GE, Anyi was picked to defend the seat for the second term and won again with an improved majority of 1,990 votes against the same opponent Roland who contested under PKR ticket.

Anyi polled 12,171 votes, while Roland garnered 10,181 votes.

Baram is the largest constituency in Malaysia, as big as the state of Pahang.

According to the electoral roll, Baram has about 59,278 voters as of May 2022, whereby 51.72 percent or 30,656 are men while the remaining 48.28 per cent or 28,622 are women.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3eHSudu
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