Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud is finally leaving Parliament - 38 years after entering it.

He announced in Kuching today that he would not be defending the Kota Samarahan seat, paving the way for his son, Sulaiman Abdul Taib, to contest in the constituency just outside Kuching.

sulaiman abdul rahman taib and taib mahmud and pbb Abdul Taib is the country’s longest serving chief minister having been at the helm of Sarawak for 27 years since 1981. Sulaiman, however, is making his electoral debut.

Sulaiman, 39, a former RHB Bank and public-listed CMS Group chairperson, was among nine new faces in the Sarawak Barisan Nasional's line-up for the parliamentary elections.

Sarawak has 31 parliamentary seats and it is the only state in which state elections are held separately.

Sulaiman was recently elected his father's Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Youth vice-chair.

Taib was first elected MP in April 1969 and served in the Federal Cabinet before returning to Sarawak in 1981, taking over from his uncle Tun Rahman Yakub in March that year as chief minister.

bn line up for sarawak parliament seats 210208 The chief minister said he was confident that his son would be able to serve the same constituents in Kota Samarahan just as well.

Another close family member named among the BN candidates is Norah Tun Rahman, the 49-year-old businesswoman daugher of Abdul Rahman Yakub. She will be contesting in the new seat of Tanjung Manis which her father represented at one time.

The other new faces are Supp Youth chief Alan Sim Yaw Yen (Bandar Kuching), Nancy Shukri from PBB (Batang Sadong), succeeding Adenan Satem, former Land Development Ministry officer Masir Kujat from PRS (Sri Aman) replacing Jimmy Donald, former district officer William Nyalau anak Badak from PRS (Lubok Antu) replacing Jawah Gerang, Ding Kuong Hiing, an engineer and political secretary to the Chief Minister from Supp (Sarikei) succeeding Law Hieng Ding, Ahmad Lai Bujang, a political secretary to the Chief Minister from PBB (Sibuti) and Hasbie Habidollah, an engineer from PBB (Limbang).

Julau, Kanowit incumbents in

Woman candidates make up 10% of the total number of candidates. All the three woman candidates are from PBB which itself is contestingin 14 of the 31 seats, Supp 7, PRS 6 and SPDP 4.

Deputy Foreign Minister Joseph Salang and Aaron Dagang, the incumbents for Julau and Kanowit, have been renominated as BN-PRS candidates.

penans meet suhakam 130208 see chee how Meanwhile, state PKR chief Dominique Ng announced at a press conference today that DAP and PKR had reached an agreement to give the Chinese-majority seat of Stampin in Kuching to PKR.

PKR is expected to field its Stampin branch chief and lawyer See Chee How ( right ) for Stampin. He will face Supp veteran Yong Khoon Seng.

DAP had earlier announced that it would field its Batu Lintang state assemblyperson Voon Lee Shan to stand in Stampin.

There are seven Chinese-majority seats and earlier DAP had refused to yield a single of these seats to PKR but after the intervention from their national leaders they had agreed on Stampin.

Ng said the party also hoped to be given another Chinese-majority seat in Miri.