KOTA KINABALU: Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) led by Datuk Peter Anthony has locked in on two parliamentary seats for the general election whether or not the party is accepted into Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS).
KDM president Datuk Peter Anthony named the two parliamentary seats – Tenom and Papar – as seats they would contest though GRS had yet to make a decision on whether they would be accepted into the state’s ruling coalition.
He said that KDM would definitely contest the interior Tenom and southwestern Papar seats as they were also looking at other seats as the party was broadening its political reach to more Sabahans in other areas.
“We will decide on other Parliament seats like Kota Kinabalu among others. We are still identifying them,” he told reporters after receiving the membership of Datuk Winston Liaw, the president of Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (SATTA).
“However, we will definitely contest Tenom and Papar as we already have state elected representatives in the Parliament constituency,” he stressed.
Peter, who is Melalap assemblyman that comes under the Tenom parliament seat and his deputy president Datuk Juil Nuatim is Limbahau assemblyman under the Papar parliamentary constituency.
Peter maintained that his party was keeping its options open with GRS who might or might not accept KDM into the five party coalition.
However, he stressed that his party remained friendly to both the Federal government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and the state government under Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
“We will continue to give our support,” he said, adding that he was confident that Hajiji would give due consideration to KDM’s application to join GRS.
On Liaw joining KDM, Peter said that the party had been gaining support from various communities including the Chinese since it was launched earlier this year.
“Liaw will be our Kota Kinabalu division chief,” he said, adding that they expect more Chinese community members to join the party.