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SANDAKAN: Parti Solidariti Tanahairku (Star Sabah) has announced its intention to contest the Sandakan parliamentary by-election.

The Sabah opposition party will be fielding 50-year-old trained economist Liew Wean Chee, who is currently its Tanjung Papat division chief.

Star Sabah Secretary-General Guandee Kohoi said the party believes it has a strong chance to wrest the parliamentary seat from the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH).

“We also want to inform our partners in Gabungan Sabah (GS) to give us the chance to contest,” he said, Friday.

The party made the announcement a few days after GS Secretary Edward Dagul reportedly said that the coalition was considering to contest. GS consists of Star Sabah, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), Parti Kebangsaan Sabah (PKS) and Parti Perpaduan Rakyat Sabah (PPRS).

Guandee said Star Sabah is open for discussion in the event any of its coalition partners would also want to enter the ring. “Star Sabah is confident that we have a better chance to win the seat. So, we hope all the other opposition parties will help ensure that we will capture it. Let us fight one-to-one against PH,” he said.

According to him, the multiracial party, which has been popular in the interior of Sabah, is now gaining strong support in Chinese areas, particularly in the east coast.

It has to date 32 divisions registered with the Registrar of Societies (Ros), four of them having a big number of Chinese voters namely in Sri Tanjung, Apas in Tawau, Tg Papat in Sandakan and Luyang in Kota Kinabalu.

“I’ve always been interested in politics. It’s all because I admire the struggles of our party president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan. When compared with all the other leaders that we know, he has proven to be consistent and single-minded all these years in fighting for the rights of Sabahans and Sabah’s status in the Federation,” said Liew, who joined Star two years back. She was previously also a teacher.

The mother of two holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and a Master in Education. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Social Science and has applied to do her dissertation on the subject of the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

Liew said if she wins the seat, she would want to play an effective role as an opposition.

“I want to make sure that the Government and its leaders deliver their promises to the people and serve them wholeheartedly,” she added.

The seat was left vacant following the death of Sandakan MP Datuk Stephen Wong of the DAP recently from a heart attack.

The Election Commission has announced that nomination will be on April 27 and polling on May 11.