LABUAN, Oct 16 — Labuan Barisan Nasional (BN) is doubling its efforts to see that the Labuan parliamentary seat is returned to Umno in the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15).

The island’s BN chairman, Senator Datuk Bashir Alias said the Labuan parliamentary seat was first won by Umno in GE8 in 1990 and had not lost the seat until GE14.

"With a strength of almost 10,000 members, we will ensure that the Labuan seat be returned to Umno.

"In principle, Labuan Umno has been given the mandate to contest in GE15 for this aim,” he told reporters after opening the Labuan Umno Division 2022 delegates’ meeting at Desa Tunas Hijau, here, today.

In GE14, the Labuan seat was won by Datuk Rozman Isli who contested on a BN ticket, with a simple majority of 1,450 of the 10,164 votes in the four-cornered fight.

After that, however, Rozman chose to join Parti Warisan which formed the Sabah state government together with the Pakatan Harapan (PH) component parties.

Meanwhile, Bashir said the GE15 in Labuan this time would see at least four to five contenders from Parti Warisan, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and Umno, as well as an Independent.

"Definitely we want a healthy contest without baseless accusations made, which could divide the island’s multiracial community and for the sake of Labuan’s economic development.

"We in Umno have been preparing for GE15 with the strength of the Youth, Wanita and Puteri wings. This time, the GE is very important for Umno to win and also regain its seats lost in GE14.

"Labuan Umno, with its almost 10,000 members, has the edge to win the seat compared to the other parties which only have over 2, 000 members,” he added. — Bernama