Both opposition parties refuse to give way in battle for hot seat
KOTAKINABALU:
DAP and PKR candidates for Kota Kinabalu parliamentary seat yesterday expressed disappointment with each other for refusing to withdraw from the fray in the constituency which sees a four-way fight between them, BN and an independent candidates in the March 8 general election. DAP candidate Dr Hiew King Cheu lamented Christina Liew of PKR had refused to pull out before the three-day cooling-off period which expired at midnight on Wednesday. Hiew said Christina’s refusal to give way for the DAP has made it unavoidable for the two opposition parties to contest against each other, BN candidate Chin Teck Ming and independent Kong Yu Kong. Nevertheless, he wished Christina the best in the contest, saying that he would leave it to the voters to decide on who they want to elect to represent them in the Parliament. He reiterated that as far as the DAP is concerned, it has fulfilled its promise to PKR Sabah not to field its candidate in Api-Api state constituency so that Christina could have a one-to-one fight with the incumbent BN-PBS candidate Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai. “Many people including myself tried our best to convince her to pull out from the contest during the three- day cooling-off period so as not to clash with each other in the contest, but in vain,” said Hiew. “We shall now leave it to the voters in Kota Kinabalu to decide on who they want to choose to represent them in the Parliament and, we also wish her all the best in the contest,” he said. Hiew reminded the voters of Kota Kinabalu of DAP’s 41 years of unwavering struggles for the country and the people, as well as its proven track record in voicing out the people’s plights in Parliament. “If I’m elected, I will make the loudest noise that you’ll ever hear in Parliament in championing your causes and plights, unlike our existing BN MPs from Sabah who were obviously only good at ‘playacting’ when raising issues affecting the people of Sabah,” he said. Meanwhile, Christina also expressed disappointment with DAP’s decision to contest for P.172 Kota Kinabalu seat, saying that DAP should have given way to PKR to take on BN for the seat to avoid splitting the votes for the opposition. She said DAP had refused to withdraw from Kota Kinabalu contest although PKR had agreed to give way in Sandakan parliamentary constituency to allow them to concentrate on BN. We agreed to let go Tanjung Papat and Sandakan seats in return for Api Api and Kota Kinabalu. They should have returned the favour but unfortunately they didn’t,” she said. Christina said PKR had already picked their candidate Philip Lee to vie for Sandakan but the latter was instructed by the party headquarters to give way to DAP candidate in the spirit of partnership to topple BN. Regretting DAP’s move, she said PKR will give its best to win the seat and leave it to the voters to decide which opposition party is best to replace BN and have the ability to bring changes to them. “I believe voters are able to see who have the ability to form a government for Sabah,” said Christina, pointing that never in the history of Sabah that a single opposition party has fielded as many candidates as PKR in a general election. She said with a total of 55 candidates fielded for state seats and another 22 for parliamentary seats, PKR is aiming and has the capability to win the whole election to form a new state government, not just to win a few seats.
