FORMER Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras) president William Mawan today revealed he has been a member of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) since 2016, bringing an end to speculation over where he stood in the local political arena.

Known to be without political affiliation since he resigned from Teras to defend his Krian seat as a Barisan Nasional direct candidate in the 2016 state elections, Mawan is battling to get BN’s nod for him to defend the Saratok federal seat he won as a Sarawak People’s Democratic Party (SPDP) candidate in the 2013 general election.

Chief Minister and Sarawak BN chairman Abang Johari Openg had yesterday announced the ruling coalition in the state would not be fielding direct candidates in the 14th general election.

As such, Abang Johar said, Mawan “may not” be defending his seat.

“I wish to affirm that I have been a member of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) since 2016. My party membership serial number is 470000,” Mawan said in a statement this afternoon.

“My admission into the party came in the wake of some uncertainty over the status of some BN- friendly candidates in the run-up to the 2016 state election.

“This declaration is a follow-up to my earlier press statement in January 2018, in which I did indicate that I would disclose my BN component party membership status at an appropriate time.”

Mawan reiterated he was a “true blue Barisan Nasional member” and that he had deferred the announcement of his membership “in view of the current political situation in Saratok”.

Despite his disclosure, there is no guarantee Mawan will get the green light nod as there is precedence to show that a party-hopping MP or assemblyman could not take his seat with him to his new party. The seat remains with the party on whose ticket the elected representative won it.

In January, PDP president Tiong King Sing said he had been informed by the BN chairman Najib Razak that the coalition would not be fielding a BN direct candidate for Saratok.

Tiong, who is also Bintulu MP, said that during a meeting, Najib and his deputy Ahmad Zaid Hamidi had agreed that the Saratok candidate would be from PDP.

Last week, Tiong announced businessman Subeng Mula as PDP’s choice for the seat.

In the 2013 parliamentary election, Mawan won the seat by a razor thin majority of 426 votes, in a three-way fight with PKR’s Ali Biju and former Election Commission board member Abang Roseli Paleng, who contested as an independent.

Mawan polled 11,600 votes, Biju 9,519, and Roseli 681.

Mawan abandoned SPDP in 2014 after losing the leadership fight to Tiong.

Mawan then joined Teras and served as the party president until before the 2016 state election, when he resigned his membership to honour a BN agreement that the Teras and UPP assemblymen who had been picked by the ruling coalition to defend their seats as direct candidates would have to leave the non-BN parties.

They could then join the BN party of their choice if they succeeded in retaining their seats.

Mawan complied with the agreement but candidate from UPP did not. – March 19, 2018.