Sarawak chief minister Adenan Satem has denied ever promising that he would appoint a Chinese deputy chief minister.

"I did not make any promise to appoint any Chinese deputy chief minister, I did not.

"Of course if SUPP and UPP (through BN direct candidates) had won all the Chinese majority seats, which are 14 or 15, I would have to consider.

"The last time we had a Chinese deputy chief minister was when SUPP had 19 seats," he said, according to Adenan's press conference in Kuching after announcing his cabinet line-up this evening.

Adenan said he only promised to appoint Chinese state ministers to represent the community.

"I did not make the promise. I did promise Chinese ministers, yes," he added.

Adenan was responding to accusations that he had broken his promise to appoint a Chinese deputy chief minister.

SUPP had only won seven seats while UPP, through its BN direct candidates, won five.

Adenan's new cabinet includes three deputy chief ministers, namely Douglas Uggah, PRS president James Masing, and PBB deputy president Abang Johari Abang Openg.

The only Chinese ministers in his lineup were former UPP president Wong Soon Koh as second finance minister, and SUPP president Sim Kui Han as local government minister.

The chief minister was previously quoted by the Borneo Post as urging Chinese voters to choose BN instead of DAP if they wanted a deputy chief minister.

“Of course, that is if the people want to be in the government, the only way to do this is to vote for SUPP.

“If you do not want it, you vote DAP. If you want it, you vote SUPP. And then there will be a Chinese deputy chief minister in the cabinet," Adenan was quoted as saying on April 28.

However, after the elections, the English daily quoted Adenan as saying that while he is happy that Chinese voters had swung back to BN, it would be up to him whether or not to appoint a Chinese deputy.