Mustapha (seated middle) and PKR Sabah leaders involved in the organising of the Program Perdana Rakyat.
KOTA KINABALU (July 22): Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sabah will be contesting in the seats it won in the last state election.
Its state liaison chairman, Datuk Mustapha Sakmud, said the party will retain the Api-Api and Inanam seats for the coming state election.
”There is no question about it and other parties can dream (about contesting in the two seats) but we will be defending these seats that we won,” he said.
PKR Sabah, he said, is also looking at increasing the number of seats it wants to contest, adding that the party needs to be practical in the matter.
Mustapha said this at a press conference here on Monday about PKR Sabah’s ‘Perhimpunan Perdana Rakyat’ here next month.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is also PKR president, is scheduled to address the 10,000 strong crowd on that day, Mustapha said.
When asked on the number of seats PKR Sabah is expecting to contest in the 17th state election, Mustapha replied that the party has identified a few seats the would like to contest in.
“We have decided and are now analysing the party’s strength in the constituencies we will contest in,” he said.
The Deputy Higher Education Minister was not ready to divulge the number of seats PKR Sabah will contest in and told the media to be patient and wait for the announcement.
On speculations that he may be throwing his hat into the fray, Mustapha said, “thank you for the speculation. Maybe there are many who wants me to contest in the state election, I will consider the possibility.”
On PKR Sabah’s leadership issue, he said that the party had conducted a few programs including a leadership retreat three days ago.
“They are starting to understand the aspiration of the state leadership. After this, we will move together with the division chiefs including those who did not support me before.
”To me this is a good development and we hope that with this cooperation we can face any challenges that comes before us,” he said.
Earlier Mustapha disclosed that the Program Perdana Rakyat will be held on August 4 at the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC). It will commence at 8am.
”Datuk Seri Anwar gave his commitment to attend and we will be talking about a few issues affecting the rakyat such as among those pertaining to infrastructure and poverty as we look for methods and approaches to eradicate hardcore poverty in the state,” he said, adding other issues would be on unemployment of youths in the state, education, enrolment of students into STEM stream and also those pertaining to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
“We will invite all those involved in the unity government and Madani government to attend as we will talk about the issues and we want them to hear for themselves our opinions,” he added.
