United People’s Party (UPP) president Wong Soon Koh has called on Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) leaders and supporters to leave it to the Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership to decide on the candidates in the coming parliamentary election.

“Let us not argue whose candidates are winnable candidates. Let’s leave it to (the) BN leadership to make the final decision,” he told reporters after officiating at the GDex e-Commerce Hub and Linehaul launch at Batu Kitang Road near here today.

Wong, who is the second finance minister and minister of international trade and e-commerce, also confirmed that the party has submitted its list of candidates for the coming parliamentary election to Prime Minister Najib Razak and Chief Minister Abang Johari Tun Openg for consideration.

“We believe our candidates are winnable candidates and we hope that our candidates would be recognised and considered,” he said, but declined to disclose the number of seats UPP was eyeing or the number of candidates in the list.

UPP has a unique status as it is not a BN component party but its leaders hold important positions in the state Cabinet and in local government.

It is a splinter party of SUPP and in last year’s state election, UPP’s candidates contested as BN direct candidates and won all four seats they contested.

However, UPP does not have any Member of Parliament while SUPP has its sole representative Richard Riot Jaem, who is also the party’s deputy president and minister of human resources.

SUPP president Sim Kui Hian had recently claimed that the party has the blessings from the federal government to field candidates in seven parliamentary seats allocated to the party.

- Bernama