KUCHING: Parti Bangsa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) has identified 17 potential candidates to represent the party in the forthcoming 14th general election (GE14).The 17 seats that the party intend to contest for are P192 Mas Gading, P198 Mambong (Puncak Borneo), P199 Serian, P202 Sri Aman, P203 Lubok Antu, P204 Betong, P205 Saratok, P209 Julau, P210 Kanowit, P213 Mukah, P214 Selangau, P217 Bintulu, P215 Kapit, P216 Ulu Rajang, P220 Baram, P222 Lawas and P221 Limbang.
“We have identified and shortlisted all the candidates for these seats. We have been doing that primary exercise of identifying the candidates for the past two years, and we have already screened them and it is just that we are looking for the suitable time to announce,” PBDSB president Cobbold John told a press conference here, yesterday.
Last week, the party announced its acting Youth Chief Rapelson Richard Hamit, 31, a degree holder in social science as its first potential candidate for Puncak Borneo, formerly Mambong.
At the press conference yesterday, Cobbold also announced Mengga Mikui as another candidate for P214 Selangau.
Mengga Mikui is a former president of SDNU, former president of Dayak National Congress (DNC), and a former PKR Sarawak’s treasurer.
Cobbold said Mengga had resigned from PKR Sarawak.
He said the names of the party’s potential candidates would be announced in stages before Gawai.
“We have no choice this time; we have to fight alone because we tried to collaborate with Pakatan Rakyat but they are not interested to cooperate and refused our gesture to cooperate with us to fight BN on one-to-one.
“They have not extended invitation to us to fight BN one-to-one,” he said, adding that PBDSB would also not be working and cooperating with STAR as both parties had different agenda.
“PBDSB’s agenda is purely on Dayakism; we try to unite the Dayaks because they are the majority in Sarawak,” he said.
Cobbold said the seats that PBDSB intended to contest for were purely Dayak majority seats.
On the background of the potential candidates, he said they included lawyers, business people, and also ex-army personnel.
We have identified one ex-army major as candidate for Kapit and a lawyer for Limbang, he added.
“We have also identified two potential women candidates,” said Cobbold.
He said that besides Mengga, there were also people from other parties, but their names could not be revealed for now.
“I think there are about five of them,” he said.
The issues that PBDSB will be focusing and highlighting on during the coming parliamentary election would be related to NCR land and the Malaysian Agreement.
“We have been highlighting the NCR issues and now the Malaysia Agreement. That is the fundamental of them all. We just need to work on these two issues,” he said.
Cobbold said PBDSB’s theme for the coming parliamentary election is “Let make Dayak great again to be known.”
“We have to be known to the Peninsular Malaysians, as there have been misconceptions on the Dayaks,” he said.
