Batu Sapi Barisan Nasional (BN) is gearing up for a by-election that will be held following the death of the constituency's member of parliament  Edmund Chong Ket Wah in a road accident in Kota Kinabalu yesterday. 

Its chairman Samsudin Yahya said all the BN component parties in the area had identified a suitable campaign strategy to get close to the voters and this would be fine-tuned.   

"I don't think we have a problem to retain the Batu Sapi seat as it is a BN stronghold," he told Bernama in Sandakan today.   

In the incident yesterday, Chong who was also Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) treasurer-general, died after his high-powered motorcycle he rode was involved in an accident with a car in Jalan Sembulan-Tanjung Aru, Kota Kinabalu.   

Samsudin who is Sekong assemblyman, is confident that the BN leadership will field a people-oriented candidate who will continue Chong's good work in Batu Sapi.   

On Chong's death, he regarded it Batu Sapi's big loss of a good and caring leader.  

"I've lost a good friend in BN, a parliamentarian who worked hard for the party and cared for the welfare of the people," he said.   

He conveyed his condolences to Chong's family and hoped his wife and children would be patient in this time of grief.   

The Batu Sapi parliamentary constituency has two state seats - Sekong which is represented by Samsudin from Umno and Karamunting, by Deputy Chief Minister Peter Pang En Yin, who is a BN-friendly independent after quitting the Liberal Democratic Party last month.   

- Bernama