ANOTHER Taib is hoping to continue the family’s presence in Sarawak politics at this general election.

Hanifah Hajar Taib, the youngest daughter of Sarawak Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud, is contesting in the Mukah federal seat on May 9.

The 46-year-old faces Pakatan Harapan’s Abdul Jalil Bujang (PKR) for the seat in the family’s Mukah hometown.

Taib, who had been in politics for more than five decades, was Sarawak’s chief minister from 1981 to 2014 when he stepped down to accept the appointment as governor.

Hanifah’s older brother, Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Abdul Taib, had a short flirt with politics when he won the Kota Samarahan parliamentary seat previously held by their father on the Barisan Nasional-Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu ticket in the 2008 general election.

Sulaiman, who was appointed deputy tourism minister following the win, resigned his post the following year and quit politics altogether not long after.

Hanifah, a graduate from the University of San Francisco, California, with a business administration degree, is one of the 15 new faces and six women candidates BN is fielding in GE14.

She was picked to contest this seat of 30,608 voters after eight-term MP and former tourism minister, Muhammad Leo Michael Toyad, quit.

Jalil, on the other hand, is no political newbie having contested in the 2011 and 2016 state elections and losing both times to minister in the Chief Minister’s Office, Talib Zulpilip, for the Jepak seat in Bintulu.

In 2014, he also made a failed attempt for the Melanau-majority Balingian state seat in a by-election.

Balingian, with Dalat, are the two state seats in the Mukah parliamentary constituency. – April 29, 2018.