The decision of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud to give the disputed state seats of Ngemah and Belaga to PRS is expected to spell more trouble between the party and SPDP on the ground in the upcoming state election.

"It's a decision many of SPDP supporters on the ground will find difficult to accept," a political observer commented.

MDC pro tem chairperson Nicholas Bawin said: "It looks certain there will be greater enmity between SPDP president William Mawan and PRS chief Dr James Masing."

PRS had claimed that the state BN had decided in the first place Belaga and Ngemah should rightly belong to it since it was the offshoot of the de-registered PBDS. But SPDP subsequently claimed the right to the seats after the incumbents Gabriel Adit (Ngemah) and Stanley Ajang (Belaga) joined SPDP.

Taib had tried to get the parties to sort out their wrangling over the seats and even suggested swapping the seats as a way out.

Mawan and Masing had since been exchanging heated words in the media over the matter. This has been said to have greatly embarrass Taib.

Dissolution within days

According to political observers, Taib's decision announced Wednesdayr night is said to be a clear indication that announcement on the dissolution of the state legislative assembly could come within days.

Meanwhile, Election Commission (EC) chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman was quoted in the Borneo Post yesterday as telling reporters in Miri "that the EC is ready for the election, and we have reached the corner even as the dissolution is expected in days."

About 900,000 registered voters will go to the polls to elect 71 representatives to the enlarged state assembly.

Taib has gone on record as saying he is confident 80 percent of the voters will support BN this time and that the BN will win with a two-third majority. The opposition, on the other hand, is confident of a big swing in the people's mood in their favour.