PM may call for next election in Feb or March, says Baru Bian

PM Najib may call for next general election in Feb or March, says Baru Bian

Kuching (Dec 6, 2011): Sarawak PKR speculates that Prime Minister Najib Razak may call for the next general election, as early as Feb or March next year, to have his own mandate from the electorate.

"There are signs that he will call for an early election rather than waiting for the current term of parliament to expire in 2013," PKR chief Baru Bian told reporters yesterday.

"As such, we are making our own preparation early for the election. We want to get better prepared this time around," he said, referring the state election on April 16 this year, in which PKR was not fully ready to face the voters.

Baru, who is also the State Assemblyman for Ba'Kelalan, said Sarawak PKR had gone to the ground to meet and have dialogues with the people as often as possible soon after the State Election.

On the seat allocations with DAP and PAS, he said it was on-going.

"Nothing has been finalised yet," he said, stressing that it was  not a major problem among the three component parties of the State Pakatan Rakyat.

"The problems involved overlapping claims in only some seats and in most seats, we do not have any problems at all," he added.

Baru said the PR component parties would help each other once the seat allocations had been finalised.

"If we are not given the seats which we have claimed, we will give our full support to the parties allocated with such seats," he promised.

Baru said both the DAP and PAS had also given similar pledges to PKR.

"What we in the PR want to do is to win in as many seats as possible, and that is why we want to help each other," he added.

On PKR candidates, Baru said only "credible and professional" candidates would be picked to contest on the party's ticket.

"We have to check their backgrounds first to see that they are candidates of credibility with professional backgrounds," he explained.

Baru said Sarawak PKR had identified a list of potential candidates, but would not disclose it for now.

"If we disclose their names, I believe that the Barisan Nasional will harass them, and this is something we do not want see," he said.

Baru said the list would be submitted to the party central political bureau for endorsement.

He, however, admitted that he had offered himself as a candidate to contest in Limbang.

"We have set up a service centre in Limbang," he said.

Baru added it was up to the party central leadership to decide whether he should be the candidate to contest Limbang in the coming general election.-Sematong Express