The first public indication that the Sarawak National Party (Snap) will contest the parliamentary election outside the Barisan Nasional has come from its president Edwin Dundang.

Privately, many of its party leaders and members have expressed the hope of "going it alone" to wrest the seats back that it feels duly belong to the party under the BN set-up.

The parliamentary seats are Mas Gading, Saratok, Bintulu and Baram. These four seats are now held by leaders of the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), a breakaway Snap party which was formed last year. SPDP is led by former Snap vice-president William Mawan, a state minister.

The four seats were won by Snap under the BN quota in the 1999 general election.

In Sarawak, state and parliamentary elections are not held simultaneously. The state polls are not due until September 2006.

In a signed press statement faxed to malaysiakini this morning, Edwin said "it goes without saying that if the general election is to be held now, the 124,000 party Snap members will want the party to contest the general election outside the Barisan Nasional."

Remain calm

He called on party members to prepare themselves accordingly and urged them to remain calm and continue to support the party leadership, particularly in the coming general election.

"During the last central executive committee meeting held last month, it was decided that Snap will make it a top priority to contest at least all the four parliamentary seats allocated to us during the last general election," he disclosed.

Snap has now applied to quash the Registrar of Societies' decision in de-registering the party last year.

The hearing originally scheduled on Wednesday has not been re-scheduled to February 10 next year at t he Kuala Lumpur High Court.

SPDP leaders have publicly asked Snap to forget about trying to claim back both state and parliamentary seats.