Opposition Sarawak National Party (Snap) will stay out of the April 7, 2009 Batang Ai by-election and work together with PKR and DAP to ensure victory for the PKR candidate, according to its secretary-general Stanley Edmund Jugol.

“We will be holding a central executive meeting on March 21 and top on the agenda will be the by-election matters,” he told Malaysiakini today.

Edmund-Stanley-Jugol Jugol said that after the meeting the party will meet with leaders of PKR and DAP on working together to ensure the victory of the candidate to be fielded by PKR in Batang Ai.

Nomination has been fixed on March 29 and the nomination centre will be in Lubok Antu, about 250km to the south of Kuching, the state capital.

Jugol also said certain Snap CEC members had made public statements without any authority about the party intending to field its own candidate.

Malaysiakini learnt that Snap deputy president Ting Ling Kiew, a former Bintulu MP, and his supporters are not happy with the PKR leadership and want Snap to field its own candidate in the predominantly-Iban state constituency, which along with the Engkilili state constituency form part of the Lubok Antu parliamentary constituency.

Opposition have made significant inroads

One of his supporters CEC member William Sirai and another, Johnny Wong, who heads the Sibu branch have called on the party leadership to field a candidate.

edwin dundang Snap president Edwin Dundang, meantime, has spoken along the same line as his secretary-general, saying that there is no point for the party to contest if it cannot find a suitable candidate and would prefer to let PKR decide on the candidate to represent the loose opposition alliance in Sarawak.

Political observers say Batang Ai by-election offers the opposition the best chance of wresting the seat from the BN.

The opposition claim they have made significant inroads among the grassroots and that several issues, including NCR land and the question of compensation to the natives over the construction of the Batang Ai hydro-electric dam, may work in favour of the opposition.

james jemut masing Meanwhile, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) supreme council member, Tedewin Ngumbang, told Malaysiakini today that the party president Dr James Masing ( pic ), who is also state Land Development Minister, is expected to call a party meeting once they can assemble everyone together and make a decision on the party's choice to stand on the BN ticket.

Sources told Malaysiakini that the party is likely to pick an engineer with a state government department, Musim Lamoh, and the opposition has acknowledged that Musim, in his late 40s, if chosen will be a formidable opponent.

“We are not short of good and qualified candidates who are all new faces,” he said, expressing confidence that the BN will be able to retain the seat, which was held by PRS vice president and state assistant minister Dublin Unting until his death last week after a long illness.

Political observers also do not discount the possibility of one or two other candidates also joining the fray.

The Election Commission met today in Kuching and decided that the nomination and polling dates will be March 29 and April 7 respectively.

Masing who was attending a Barisan Nasional meeting today in Kuala Lumpur told Malaysiakini that he had submitted the party's nominee to the chief minister.

"I've just handed (the name of) PRS nominee to the chief minister for his consideration today," he said via SMS.

"The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have both been notified in KL today. Let them decide and make the announcement," he added.