Published on: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 |
Kota Marudu: All Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) divisions in the State have been directed to reactivate their respective election machinery in preparation for the State election which is due by March next year.
PBS Secretary-General, Datuk Radin Malleh, said Monday that early preparations were crucial to ensure all the seats allocated to PBS were won with overwhelming majority to help the Barisan Nasional (BN) register an overall landslide victory.
As advised by the PBS President, Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan, during the partys work camp in Tambunan on March 16, we cant afford to be complacent now that we are part of the Government and think that there is no formidable opposition, he said when opening the annual general meeting of the Tandek PBS division.
Instead, we should be working doubly hard so that our members and supporters are inspired with a renewed sense of struggle for the benefit of our future generation, he said.
Radin also called on the Election Commission (EC) to review its voter registration procedure as well as electoral roll display and objection processes.
As it is now, the procedure seems to be counter-productive and exposed to abuse in so far as the voter registration is concerned, he said.
Responding to reports of poor response from eligible citizens to register as voters, Radin said the review was important in view of the fact that the country has no mandatory law to compel them to be registered, while in Sabah foreigners can be easily registered as voters by the use of illegally acquired identification cards.
He also said that the people in the Tandek State constituency and Bandau parliamentary constituency were fortunate to have Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili as their representative as he was committed to the partys struggle.
Dr Maximus is one of the PBS leaders who is instrumental in bringing back PBS to the BN, he said.
The re-entry of the PBS into the BN (in January last year) is a relief to the people in Sabah and this only goes to show that they want the PBS to be in the mainstream once again, added Radin.
