As the dust from the Sarawak state election settles, the ruling coalition’s component parties are beckoning BN direct candidates who have won the election to join them.

The Borneo Post reported today that the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) supreme council unanimously passed a resolution yesterday to open its doors to the newly-elected representatives to join – either as individuals, or en bloc together with their respective parties.

This includes opening talks on a possible merger with BN-friendly parties United People’s Party (UPP) and Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras).

“We had a lengthy discussion and came to a unanimous decision by all the 28 supreme council members present to open our door to all the direct BN candidates to either join our party as individuals or as parties, such as UPP and Teras,” SPDP president Tiong King Sing is quoted as saying.

Tiong (photo) added: “We have offered UPP to join us and then we have mooted the discussion. Today, we brought it to the supreme council for discussion and in principle agreed to offer them to join us.

“Of course, if the move can be achieved, then the details of merging the parties will be discussed later.

“We made this initial move. See how they respond. If you make the move and there is a response, then there will be a second stage. However, there will be a timeline set. We will open the door and see how it goes first.”

Unprecedented move

Separately, See Hua Daily reported that Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) has likewise thrown open its doors to its former leaders and other BN direct candidates.

The UPP is a splinter party of BN’s Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), while Teras is a splinter party of SPDP.

Both splinter parties and their elected representatives aligned themselves with the BN prior to the recent election, but they are not part of the BN coalition.

In an unprecedented move, Sarawak BN chief Adenan Satem had fielded some of the incumbent elected representatives from UPP and Teras as BN direct candidates.

This was to take advantage of the incumbents’ existing support base, without further aggravating the conflicts between SPDP and Teras, and SUPP and UPP.

A number of BN direct candidates are also not members of any political party.

Of the BN direct candidates who contested and won, five are from UPP and three from Teras. Another three are not from any political party.

According to the See Hua Daily report, UPP held a party meeting yesterday on the SPDP offer, but did not announce any decision. Instead, it merely said a statement will be issued in the near future.

Teras is reportedly silent on the issue thus far.

The daily also quoted BN Bawang Assan direct candidate Wong Soon Koh, who is from UPP, as saying that he would announce his decision in a day or two.