PRS president Joseph Salang Gandum said many rural constituencies in Sarawak cover vast areas and have much larger voter populations than some urban or suburban seats.

He said elected representatives for such areas would face difficulty in serving their constituents effectively.

“We propose the creation of more, smaller rural Dayak constituencies to improve the delivery of development projects and to make it easier to reach out to voters with ideas that can help reduce poverty,” he said at the party’s delegates conference in Kuching today.

Salang said PRS and other component parties of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) share the same view in seeking a more balanced ethnic representation in the state assembly.

“We cannot leave the process of constituency mapping to the Election Commission alone,” he said, suggesting that Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg personally intervene in the matter.

Salang also reaffirmed PRS’s commitment to working with the state government to advance Dayak interests.

PRS is a Dayak-based component of the ruling GPS coalition and currently holds 11 seats in the Sarawak state assembly.

At the delegates’ conference, PRS members will be voting to choose a new president to replace Salang, who announced in August that he will not seek re-election. He has endorsed vice-president John Sikie Tayai as his successor.

However, Sikie is being challenged by Wilson Nyabong Ijang, in the first-ever contested presidential election.

Sikie, a party veteran, is a minister in the premier’s department, while Nyabong is the assemblyman for Pelagus.