Manyin, the current state education, science and technological research minister, announced his decision after officiating at the Serian Education Leadership Colloquium in Serian today, Borneo Post reported.

“It’s official. I have made up my mind and the chief minister has accepted it,” the senior party vice-president was quoted by the daily as saying.

“I am not disappointed. I have no regrets. I voluntarily came out (to make the announcement), nobody forced me.”

Manyin has been the Tebedu assemblyman since 1996 and PBB is part of the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government.

In the last state elections in 2016, he won by a majority of 6,193 votes after defeating PKR’s Alex Saben.

He said he is looking forward to spending his retirement with his grandchildren and working on his farm.

Manyin is also confident that GPS will win all the eight predominantly Bidayuh seats in the state polls.

The seats are Opar, Tasik Biru, Serembu, Mambong, Tarat, Tebedu, Kedup and Bukit Semuja.

“Looking at the past records, the Bidayuh’s are always with the government. They have seen the benefit of supporting the government,” he said.

Three assemblymen from PBB – Abdul Wahab Aziz (Kalaka), Naroden Majais (Gedong) and Ambrose Blikau Enturan (Katibas) – have also announced that they will not be defending their seats in the coming state polls.