SERIAN: The Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) candidate for Serian parliamentary constituency, Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem is confident in defending his seat.
He said this when met by reporters when concluding his campaign rally at his headquarters in Kampung Pichin, here, last night.
“Suffice to say, I will win,” he said.
“I have held talks with the women, village leaders including youth of Serian. Tonight, is a session with my own villager. And this is the fifth largest campaign held at this headquarters.”
He asserted that the campaign rally that evening was the grand finale prior to election day.
He has visited his supporters who have been with him since the beginning throughout the campaign period, to hear the sentiments on the ground, visiting to every parts of the village in the heart of Serian.
He visited a number of villages, some of which were far apart and it rained in some places, but he was adamant that he would carry on fighting until he achieved victory.
He began his campaigning rather late, on Wednesday, Nov 9.
Given that he has known the Serian people since he first became an MP in 1990, it is not odd. He has established a solid grassroots support.
For the record, Riot initially contested for and won the Serian parliamentary seat as an independent candidate in 1990.
Later, beginning in 1995, he was re-elected for six consecutive terms on the Barisan Nasional (BN) ticket.
He was also elected as the Sarawak United Peoples’ Party’s (SUPP’s) first non-Chinese vice president during the party’s triennial assembly in 2011.
Following the BN’s downfall in the 2018 general election, Sarawak-based BN component parties including SUPP left the coalition to form Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), thereby taking over the state from BN.
