Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) today said the BN is likely to retain a Chinese candidate for the Batu Sapi parliamentary seat by-election.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the party's supreme council at its headquarters in Penempang, its president Joseph Pairin Kitingan said the list had reached as high as 10 names, but it would be shortened before discussions with Sabah Chief  Minister Musa Aman, who is the director of operations for the by-election.

Musa, who is also Sabah BN chairman, is expected to chair a meeting with the state BN component parties tomorrow at 11am to discuss the Batu Sapi by-election, where PBS will submit the shortlisted names.

"Our last representative (the late Edmund Chong Ket Wah) was from the Chinese community. Obviously, the candidates were are proposing will be from the Chinese community as well.

"So we will all look at the names together, with recommendations and consultations from other component parties,"  said Pairin, who is deputy director of operations for the by-election.

The deputy chief minister also stressed that the final say will be through  BN consensus, because although the proposed names came from PBS, in the end it would  be a BN candidate they were talking about.

Asked to comment on the fact that Sapp and Pakatan Rakyat would each field their own candidates, Pairin said they would  let the opposition do their thing as the BN would giving full focus on the people and securing a bigger majority for the constituency from the last 2008 election.

The late Chong retained the Batu Sapi seat in the last general election with a majority of 3,708 votes against independent candidate Dr Chung Kong Wing.

Replying to questions, Pairin said the names of potential candidates proposed were from the Batu Sapi and Sandakan areas, and that family members of the late Chong were also considered, but stressed that 'anybody is considered, even those not from the family side'.

Earlier, Pairin had stated that the coordinator for the by-election at the national level would be Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also BN deputy chairman.

He said that PBS has already formed the Batu Sapi by-election machinery at the state level and also the respective  constituency.

Meanwhile, in Sandakan, Sabah DAP chairperson Dr Hiew King Chew said the state DAP would be discussing with other Pakatan component parties on who to field as candidate in the by-election.

The coalition's top leadership would have the final say in the matter, he told reporters at Sandakan DAP's office here.

- Bernama