“The election is going to be held very soon and we have no time to drop anyone… we have to work together to be strong to face the election.

“We want not just SUPP to become strong. We also should make Sarawak strong politically,” Sim, who is also Sarawak local government and housing minister, told Bernama.

Rumours have been swirling that Riot, who is human resources minister and Serian MP, will be dropped in the coming polls.

The six-term MP is currently the sole SUPP elected representative in Parliament, having retained the rural Dayak seat of Serian, the only seat won by SUPP out of seven contested in GE13, besides being the party’s first non-Chinese deputy president.

Sim said the Chinese support for SUPP had increased, which could help the state Barisan Nasional (BN) redeem itself following its poor performance in GE13.

He was also optimistic that the fortunes of Sarawak’s oldest party would change at GE14.

Asked to comment on the action of SUPP splinter group, the United People’s Party (UPP), to stake its claim on the same seven parliamentary seats, Sim said no party should claim them as they were SUPP’s traditional seats.

Apart from Serian, the remaining six seats contested by SUPP in GE13 were Bandar Kuching, Stampin, Sibu, Lanang and Sarikei, which went to DAP, and Bandar Miri which went to PKR. All are Chinese-majority urban seats.

“The chief minister said recently that he wants SUPP to wrest back Lanang and Sibu, which clearly shows that the chief minister himself wants SUPP to contest in these seats,” Sim said.

He added that anyone who wished to contest in the seven seats using the BN symbol must be SUPP candidates.