KUCHING: The Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) decision to hold a fresh election for its suspended Bintangor branch in central Sarawak to resolve the longstanding leadership feud has met with a strong objection from one of the factions.
The camp headed by Tan Sri Law Hieng Ding is against the fresh election ordered by the party’s central working committee recently.
However, a rival faction led by former Meradong assemblyman Datuk Ting Check Sii is ready to contest in the fresh polls to be held by Oct 31.
The Bintangor branch plunged into crisis after two separate executive committees headed by Law, who is also party deputy president and former Science, Technology and Environment Minister, and Ting were elected last year.
The branch was barred from sending any delegates to the party’s general assembly last December. It was later suspended after the feuding factions failed to meet the deadline to reconcile.
The suspension, however, did not affect the branch’s youth and women’s executive committees.
Former Meradong assemblyman Thomas Hii, branch secretary in Law’s executive committee, said the fresh election would not resolve the branch’s internal problems.
“It will further split the branch,” he said when asked yesterday.
Saying that his faction had recently met with the grassroots of both the branch’s Chinese and Iban sections, Hii claimed that they had protested against the fresh election.
“They feel strongly that the fresh election is not the right way to resolve the branch’s problem because our (Law’s) committee was properly elected,” he said.
There are more than 1,000 Ibans out of the branch’s some 5,000 registered members.
Hii said that as Law’s committee was lawfully elected, and it should be allowed to administer the branch.
Sarikei MP Ding Kuong Hiing, who is aligned to Ting, said his camp would take part in the fresh election.
However, he declined to comment when asked if the fresh polls would be the solution to end the branch’s crisis.
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