SERIAN: Sarawak Public Health Assistant Minister and incumbent for Bengoh state seat Datuk Dr Jerip Susil is the first direct Barisan Nasional (BN) to be publicly announced by Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem today.
However Adenan, who is also state BN chairman, will announce the full list of direct BN candidates tomorrow.
Dr Jerip will contest the Mambong seat, which was formerly called Bengoh, and the announcement was made by Adenan in his speech at the launching of the state government office complex, Serian cofnerence centre and Serian new township extension here.
Later when asked by reporters at a press conference, the chief minister also said that Dr Jerip is in team but said he would announce the full list of direct BN candidates at a press conference tomorrow.
To another question, Adenan declined to disclose the total number of direct BN candidates to be fielded in the coming state election, adding that there were several of them.
Dr Jerip, who won the seat three times since 2001 under the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP)-BN banner, left the party in 2014 to form another party, the United People’s Party (UPP) together with State Local Government and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh and two other SUPP elected representatives, Ranum Mina (Opar) and Johnical Rayong (Engkilili).
UPP became a BN-friendly party while Jerip and Wong continue to be in Adenan’s cabinet.
Mambong has been Jerip’s political home ground for the last two decades. Before he first won on a SUPP-BN ticket in 2001, he had stood as an independent candidate in the same constituency in 1996 and narrowly lost to the late Datuk William Tanyuh, who represented SUPP-BN. -- Bernama