Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is confident BN is able to wrest the Pujut state constituency in Sarawak from the opposition if a by-election is held for the seat.

He said if the BN managed to wrest the seat, it would increase the number of seats held by Sarawak BN to 73 compared to 72 seats won in the last state election.

"God willing, there will be a by-election in Pujut and we (BN) will get 73 out of 83 seats (Sarawak state assembly)," he said when speaking at a meet-the-people session in Dataran Bagandang, near Beaufort today,

Also present were Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Azizah Mohd, who is also Beaufort Member of Parliament and Beaufort Umno division chief dIsnin Aliasnih,

On May 12, the Sarawak state legislative assembly disqualified Ting Tiong Choon from DAP as the Pujut assemblyperson after a motion was made by state International Trade and E-Commerce Minister Woon Soon Koh, who is also Bawang Assan assemblyperson, because Ting has dual citizenship, Malaysian and Australian.

The motion was passed after it was seconded by 70 assemblypersons, while another 10 objected to it.

According to Ahmad Zahid, BN made almost a clean sweep in the last Sarawak state election due to the commitment of the state and national BN, including himself who visited Sarawak once every two weeks to help the people of Sarawak.

Hence the deputy prime minister said, in the coming general election, it was not impossible for Sabah to achieve better results compared to that of the last general election based on the commitment shown by the federal government towards Sabah and the solid support of the people in the state.

"We will ensure that whichever individual or party that tried to buck Umno and BN, we will defeat them in the general election. Only those (leaders) who have resilience, competitiveness and fighting spirit will succeed," he added.

- Bernama