Caretaker Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud has predicted that the Barisan Nasional will win with 'a very comfortable majority' in the state elections.

At a press conference to announce the dissolution of the legislative assembly today, Taib conceded that he "could not say" the BN will make a clean sweep of the 71 state seats this time.

"Normally I would avoid that sign of arrogance. I can say I am confident we will win with a very comfortable majority," he said.

Nine more seats have been added to the 62 contested previously, following the a redelineation exercise.

Taib's party, PBB, will contest 35 seats, including five new seats, while Supp will contest in 19, PRS in 9 and SPDP in 8.

Snap, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and the yet-to-be registered Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC) have formed a loose opposition grouping called Barisan Bersatu Sarawak (BBS).

Snap and MDC will focus on the 29 Dayak seats, while PKR will take on Malay/Melanau seats.

Star, another small opposition party led by a former state assistant minister Dr Patau Rubis, is expected to field candidates in predominantly Bidayuh seats.

DAP, which is not a member of BBS, will take Supp in all 14 Chinese-majority seats and is rated as the opposition party with the best chance to win seats. It won the Kidurong state seat in the last state election.

Taib said 20 percent of the candidates would be contesting the new seats and there will be more women candidates.

'Wait for nominations'

Yesterday, he had ruled out the possibility of his son Sulaiman, 37, ( left ) contesting although many PBB branches in Muara Tuang abd Tanjung Datu had wanted him to be named as a candidate.

Taib said he would leave it to his children to make their decision on whether or not to enter politics.

Political observers saw this as an indication that Taib could stay on longer than anticipated as chief minister, after more than two decades at the helm.

Asked whether former federal minister Adenan Satem would be defending his state seat, he told reporters to wait for nomination day.

There has been speculation that Adenan, the MP for Batang Sadong, may give up his state seat to concentrate on his parliamentary work.

For weeks Taib has been signalling his intention to phase out older elected representatives through a formula that he described as "reducing the average age of candidates".

Building on this today, he cited the need to re-invigorate and re-energise "a good team".