All eyes will be on the Sarawak BN meeting scheduled at 2 pm tomorrow in Kuching during which the candidate for the Batang Ai by-election will be decided.

Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Dr James Masing has submitted the party's sole nomination believed to be Malcolm Mossen, a senior agriculture officer, to the BN for consideration.

batang ai state seat past results 110309 Deputy president of Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) Alfred Jabu has also submitted a list of his own to the Barisan Nasional. The list is said to include the names of a senior civil servant and an engineer with a private company.

A headmaster and another engineer are also said to be keen to be the BN standard bearer. It is learnt that they have been conducting a signature campaign to lobby for the seat.

Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud has asked for more names to be submitted so that the BN has a wider choice to screen through.

Sidelined again?

A PRS supreme council member said all eyes will be on the meeting tomorrow as the person selected will have some implications on the result of the by-election.

"If the party's sole nomination is rejected, then we are open to accusations that PRS is being bullied by PBB. The opposition will surely capitalize on this issue," he said.

He even warned that some PRS members would not campaign for a PBB-sponsored candidate, let alone vote for him.

During the last parliamentary election, PBB was accused of bullying PRS when two of its nominees for the Lubok Antu and Sri Aman constituencies were sidelined. Instead PBB put up William Nyallau for Lubok Antu and Masir Kujat for Sri Aman. They are said to be ‘on loan’ to PRS.

"We do not want the same thing to happen to our nominee this time," warned the PRS leader.