KUCHING: The women's wing of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) wants to increase the number of women members in the party, says its chief Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah.
She said women currently made up less than half of the party's total membership, comprising 171,560 out of 356,972.
"One important agenda under our newly-formed political bureau is to increase women's membership in the party," she told a press conference after chairing the women's wing supreme council meeting at PBB headquarters here on Thursday (July 14).
Fatimah said the bureau would meet after this to discuss the target number of new members and how to achieve it.
She said the political bureau was one of four new bureaus set up under the women's wing. The others are the economic bureau, social and welfare bureau and 1,828 youth bureaus for those aged 18 to 28 years.
"These are our focus areas for the party's 2022-2025 term and where we want to strengthen our activities and programmes," she said.
Fatimah also called on the women's machinery to work in tandem with the main body and youth wing in preparation for the 15th General Election (GE15).
"The party's machinery is very important when facing elections. We must keep working hard as we did in the previous state election because we want to win all the parliamentary seats we are contesting," she said.
Asked if PBB's women incumbents would be retained for GE15, Fatimah said this was the prerogative of Sarawak Premier and PBB president Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.
"We must work hard as a team to ensure victory for all our candidates, not just the women candidates," she added.
PBB currently has four women Members of Parliament - Datuk Rubiah Wang (Kota Samarahan), Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri (Batang Sadong), Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim (Batang Lupar) and Datuk Hanifah Hajar Taib (Mukah).
