The Batang Ai by-election on April 7 is likely to see a straight fight between candidates from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) and the opposition PKR.

However, some central executive members of opposition Sarawak National Party (Snap) which supports the national opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat are urging the party's top leadership to field a candidate.

Edwin-Dundang Snap president Edwin Dundang has gone on record as saying that unless the party can field a suitable candidate, this campaign would be left to PKR.

Dundang and his deputy Stanley Jugol are known to have forged close ties with PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim and other top PKR leaders. They have told colleagues in private that it will be difficult for Snap to identify a suitable candidate.

However, a party member has reportedly told a national newspaper that “Snap will definitely be contesting” and that Edwin had given instructions for a committee to be formed to spearhead the by-election campaign.

“Dundang’s colleague does not like PKR to win. He and his gang are drumming up the issue that PKR has no place in Sarawak politics, being a (peninsula)-based party,” the report said.

“(In the colleague’s view) Snap has strength and influence in Batang Ai and other parts of Sarawak...(and) Snap today is still the same as in the 1970s.”

Snap is awaiting a Federal Court decision on its application to review the de-registration of the party six years ago by the Registrar of Societies.

batang air state seat 240209 Of the Batang Ai electorate, 95 percent are Dayak, with the rest mainly being Chinese Malaysians.

Chief Minister and state BN leader Abdul Taib Mahmud, according to sources, has assured PRS president James Masing that he will be allowed to nominate the BN candidate.

PRS, one of the four component parties in the state BN, is said to be considering engineer Musim Lamoh, lecturer Desmond Sateng and state agency senior executive Peter Umeh, as candidates.

As for PKR, the choice appears to be between former Batang Ai MP and businessman Jawah Gerang and PKR Batang Ai branch chairperson Nicholas Bawin.

The seat was left vacant by the death of BN representative Dublin Unting last Tuesday.