SIBU: Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem (pic) has hinted that there would be a fair distribution of seats between SUPP and its breakaway party UPP.
SUPP had so far been given 10 seats while UPP got one when its deputy president Dr Jerip Susil was named as candidate for the new seat of Mambong.
The 10 nominated candidates from SUPP were Peter Pau for Padungan, Milton Foo Thian Wee (Pending), Sih Hua Tong (Batu Lintang), Wilfred Yap (Kota Sentosa) Lo Khere Chiang (Batu Kitang), Dr Sim Kui Hian (Batu Kawah), Francis Hardin (Sri Aman), Chieng Buong Toon (Bukit Assek), Sebastian Ting (Piasau), and Lee Khin Sim for Senadin.
Speaking at a press conference after attending a closed-door meeting with 8,000 staff of KTS Group of Companies Friday, he said he would announce more names in time to come.
"(Obviously) there must be a fair distribution of seats. I cannot be too particular (at this moment) as in time to come, I will announce (the candidates). I don't think anybody will be happy with just one seat," he added.
Adenan said he would only announce the candidates for Meradong, Dudong and Bawang Assan before nomination day.
Asked on how he chose the candidates, he said, "some are through assessment, some from public response and of course the general attitude of the people".
The Chief Minister said with people fighting to use the BN's dacing symbol, it showed how popular the symbol was.
He also said that there were signs that the Chinese community was with the Barisan now but whether it could be translated to votes was another matter.
"I think there is a movement to BN among the Chinese community. But the question here is whether there are enough ballots (for us). So we need to campaign harder," he said.
To a question on women candidates, he said he hoped other component parties would follow that of PBB which has the most number of women candidates.
He however had yet to decide on how many women candidates that PBB would nominate.