Posted on April 7, 2011, Thursday The Birneo Post
KUCHING: The hope of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) to see a straight fight against Barisan Nasional (BN) in Tarat was dashed when a third contender appeared out of the blue five minutes before the end of nomination.
The PKR candidate for Tarat, Peter Ato Mayau and the party’s supporters were initially in very high spirit as they thought that it would be a one-to-one contest against the incumbent Roland Sagah Wee Inn. The confident PKR supporters however were taken back when SNAP candidate Ateng Jeros showed up to file his nomination papers in the nick of time, unlike the other opponents who filed their documents almost as soon as the nomination centre at Siburan district office was opened at 9am.
Ato, a local from Kampung Dunuk, Padawan, who was accompanied by about 100 supporters led by Selangor assemblywoman for Rawamg Wan Pei Nei, was the first to submit his papers at 9am followed by Sagah five minutes later. Ato’s candidacy was proposed by Sanged Dingen and seconded by Alladin Kanang while the proposer for Sagah was Kuntang Sula and Michael Chin Apau, the seconder.
Ateng who came with a handful of SNAP supporters was proposed and seconded by Jiku Nyagoh and Kombet Salung respectively.
When the nomination closed at 10am, returning officer (RO) Wilson Spilak Asui received only one objection from 10 to 11am and no protests were made. Nevertheless, the candidates to contest in Tarat were only announced at 12.20pm.
In the last election, Sagah won the seat by beating Alex Saben Nyipong from SNAP with a 3,256-votes majority. He polled 5,854 votes against Saben. Tarat, which is one of the six Bidayuh predominant state constituencies of Opar, Tasik Biru, Bengoh, Tebedu and Kedup, has a total of 16,352 registered voters where the Bidayuhs accounted for 10,750, Chinese (4,759) Malay/Melanau (771) and the rest are Ibans and others.
The nomination process for Tarat yesterday went smoothly without any incident. “We are very thankful to the supporters from all the contesting parties for their full cooperation throughout the nomination process. We are very grateful for that,” said Spilak.
He described the process as being very peaceful, calm and more of a family affair and he hoped that similar situation would be maintained throughout the campaigning and polling period.
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