Keadilan has stayed away from Bandar Kuching , allowing the DAP to engage in a straight fight with the Barisan Nasional in the premier parliamentary seat, located in Sarawak's capital city.

In a last-minute agreement, both DAP and Keadilan leaders have agreed not to fight each other in order to increase the opposition chances of winning the seat.

Keadilan's Dominique Ng Kim Ho, a well-known grassroots personality, has agreed to stay away, agreeing to a DAP's offer to contest instead in the state elections two years down the road, thus allowing Sarawak DAP secretary Chong Chieng Jen to fight it out with the BN.

Ng told reporters he had a talk with Sarawak DAP chairperson Wong Ho Leng over the matter.

Chong, the lawyer son of a Sarawak DAP veteran Chong Siew Chiang, a former state assemblyperson, is not a few face. He contested the seat in the 1999 polls but was defeated.

DAP has always insisted on fielding its candidate in Bandar Kuching and in what is seen as a semblance of opposition unity to take on the mighty BN, Keadilan decided to stay away from most urban seats in Sarawak where DAP is contesting.

Better chances

Observers see the opposition's chances as having been bolstered with this last-minute agreement between DAP and Keadilan in Sarawak. However, the combined votes garnered by the two opposition candidates at the last elections were still not enough to beat the BN candidate Song Swee Guan.

But this time, the opposition are facing a BN new face in former senator Wee Kok Tiong, 41, who is regarded as a political novice. But Wee is still seen as formidable given that the Sarawak United People's Party he belongs to has strong links with Chinese guilds and associations and network with the business community in Kuching.

Bandar Kuching is seen as one of the opposition's best hopes of winning in the state.

In this elections, the Chinese-based Supp, one of the four component parties of the state BN, is seen as facing a stiff competition in a number of areas, including Sibu.