Riot not swept off his feet by big crowd at nomination by Johnson K

KUCHING: The huge turnout of BN supporters in Serian on nomination day has not made their candidate Datuk Richard Riot over-confident.
“I, for one, am a person who never take the election lightly and will not be over-confident,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
According to him, he had been working hard on the ground and even harder after nomination day where this time around, he is facing Edward Andrew Luak (DAP) and Johnny Aput (STAR).
Riot, who is deputy foreign minister under the present caretaker government, however said he was tremendously overwhelmed by the strong support.
“On that day itself, we chartered 400 vehicles to ferry BN supporters from all 230 villages in Serian parliamentary constituency with each ‘kampung’ sending at least 10 supporters,” he enthused.
He, however, still appealed to voters from the various communities in Serian, including Chinese, Malays, Ibans, Bidayuhs and others to vote for him on polling day despite the show of support.
“What I want to say here is when elected, I will not represent only one particular community but representing all and to serve everyone in Serian. That is why I am appealing to other communities to come vote for me,” he said.
He also appealed to all voters in Mambong and Mas Gading, particularly the Bidayuh community, to give their votes to BN on polling day. He described Datuk Seri Dr James Dawos (Mambong), Anthony Nogeh Gumbek (Mas Gading) and himself as the hopes and pillars of the Bidayuh community which they should not destroy.
As for Serian, the seat had been rated by some people, including Kedup assemblyman Martin Ben, as a sure win for BN.
Martin said generally, the constituents were appreciative of the many developments taking place in the area and thus would continue to vote for BN.
“I don’t want to sound so cocky but I am very optimistic that BN will again retain Serian,” he said.
Martin believed that most voters in Serian would like to keep Riot in Parliament because they hoped to see him elevated to a full minister.
Meanwhile, an observer who did not want to be named, said this would be the best opportunity for the Bidayuh community to expect greater reward for their political struggle through the party.
“The reality now is, SUPP president Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui who was the only full minister from the party prior to the dissolution of parliament, is not defending his Miri seat this time.
“So automatically, the next one in the waiting list is none other than the deputy president, provided he wins the election, and of course people will also have to look at the majority margin,” he said.
In the 2008 general election, Riot won the seat comfortably with a majority of 13,427 votes in a straight fight against Sylvester Belayong Jayang from Sarawak National Party (SNAP). #myvote13 #ge13


Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/04/25/riot-not-swept-off-his-feet-by-big-crowd-at-nomination/#ixzz2RWJtkqsa