KUCHING: The newly formed political alliance Gabungan Anak Sarawak (Gasak) can unseat the Democratic Action Party (DAP) provided its candidates are popular, said Universiti Malaya associate professor Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi.
He pointed out that the popularity of candidates would be the golden leeway for Gasak to sweep over the DAP seats in the next state election.
“I would say that the next state election will be more interesting with the newly formed Gasak alliance party.
“This upcoming election will be more dynamic and complex especially with Gasak competing in Padungan, Batu Lintang, Kota Sentosa and Pending, which are under DAP.
“Unless the coalition nominates the best candidate who is very popular among the grassroots in the area,” he said when asked by New Sarawak Tribune to comment on the winnability for Gasak in constituencies currently under DAP.
“However, this does not guarantee victory in the competition because voters in these areas are more comfortable with longer and active parties such as DAP, SUPP and PKR.
“In fact, the voter’s sentiment towards DAP, SUPP and PKR are still strong.
“It is difficult for Gasak coalition to unseat the already established party like DAP which has been getting strong support from Chinese voters for years,” he commented.
He added that voters usually would do some internal audits of parties based on their track records.
“However, because Gasak is a newly formed coalition, it might be difficult for the voters to measure their previous track records because the coalition had none,” he said.
Gasak is an alliance comprising of five local political groups — Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi), Sarawak Worker’s Party (SWP), Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) Baru, Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) and Sarawak Independence Alliance (SIA).
On Saturday, its protem chairperson Lina Soo revealed that three S4S activists — Chan Chee Hiong, Tan Kok Chiang and Alex Leong Shaow Tung will be contesting in Pending, Kota Sentosa and Batu Lintang respectively.
The party had also stated that it planned to contest in all 82 seats in the upcoming state election.
