UPP Secretary-General George Lo told reporters here today that the status of UPP was raised at a noon meeting with Chief Minister Adenan Satem yesterday.
Present at the meeting was UPP President Wong Soon Koh.
“We asked him to affirm that UPP is still a BN party. CM (Adenan) said surely that cannot be disputed because the UPP president is a full minister in the state Cabinet.
“If we are not BN-plus, how can our president be in the Cabinet?”
BN-plus is a term coined for parties affiliated, but not formally registered with the ruling coalition.
UPP party leaders, including Wong, were present at today’s press conference, in which only Lo spoke.
Lo said another resolution was passed by UPP today which called for Adenan to ensure that in the allocation of positions for political secretaries for councillors, community leaders and appointments in government linked companies, UPP as a loyal BN-plus party should be “given a fair and equitable share of those positions”.
“The chief minister did make a statement that after the election, successful candidates can join any party that is loyal to BN.
“The journalists present did ask him whether it must be a component party and the CM said any party that is loyal to BN,” said Lo.
“UPP has always been loyal to BN.
“UPP is still acknowledged as a BN-plus party. Our president is a full minister in the Cabinet.
“Our second resolution now is to call on the chief minister to ensure fair and equal distribution of lost positions that I mentioned,” Lo added.
UPP leaders were given seven seats to contest as direct BN candidates, where leaders resigned in order to contest under the BN banner. UPP won five.
Two weeks after the May 7 election, former UPP Deputy President Dr Jerip Susil, who is Mambong assemblyman, party Senior Vice-President Ranum Mina (Opar) and party Youth Chief Dr Johnical Rayong (Engkilili) applied to join Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB).
PBB, which controls 40 out of 82 state seats, is BN’s dominant component in Sarawak.
The party, which comprises leaders from the Dayak, Malay, Orang Ulu and Melanau communities, has received nine applications from BN direct candidates.
Should it accept two of the nine applications, it would be in a position to form a government with a simple majority without the need for its coalition partners.
If it accepts all nine applications, PBB would then be six seats away from a two-thirds majority.