TWENTY per cent of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu’s 47 candidates for the coming Sarawak elections will be new faces, its vice-president Abdul Karim Hamzah said today.

Karim did not reveal which seats will have new faces but one incumbent who will definitely not be contesting is Abdul Wahab Aziz who had held the rural coastal Malay-majority seat of Kalaka for seven terms since 1991.

PBB president, Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg had in July confirmed Abdul Wahab Aziz is retiring from politics.

Abang Johari said Wahab’s retirement was in accordance with “PBB culture”.

Word has it that its Tg Dato rep, Jamilah Anu – widow of former chief minister Adenan Satem – wants to give up her seat to pave the way for her son Azizul Annuar to take over.

Azizul is believed to be in his early 30s.

Speaking to reporters at a ziarah belia (visiting youth) programme in Sematan, Lundu, about 70km from Kuching, today, Karim, who is also the state’s youth and sports minister, said some of the new faces in PBB will be “very young, in their 30s” to reflect the trend of having youth in the candidate line-up.

Yesterday, the party’s women’s wing chief, Fatimah Abdullah, disclosed that some PBB women incumbents will not be defending their seats in the coming polls.

Fatimah said their intention had been conveyed to Abang Johari.

She cited health factors as among the reasons given by them not to defend their seats.

Apart from Jamilah and Fatimah, the women candidates PBB fielded in the 2016 elections were Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali in Samariang, Simoi Peri in Lingga and Rosey Yunus in Bekenu.

Simoi and Rosey were originally fielded as BN candidates and they formally joined PBB after the elections. – November 10, 2021.