KOTA KINABALU: Pakatan Harapan (PH) component party DAP is confident it will be able to defend the Tenom seat.
"DAP's chances are always good there; I am confident with my colleague Noorita Sual," said DAP central executive committee member Chan Foong Hin when asked about DAP's chances of winning the seat since Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) president Datuk Peter Anthony was out of the running.
However, Chan said that it was up to the people to decide.
"This is up to the wisdom of the people. I believe the people will make the best choice," said Chan.
Noorita is facing Barisan Nasional's (BN) Datuk Jamawi Jaafar, Warisan's Ukim Buandi and two independent candidates — Riduan Rubin and Peggy Chaw Zhi Ting.
In the 2018 election, DAP fielded Noorita to contest the Tenom parliamentary seat against Rubin Balang of Umno. Noorita won the seat with a majority of 1,133 votes, breaking BN's long-time hold of the area.
On Saturday, Anthony's nomination was rejected by the Election Commission (EC) due to his forgery conviction and sentence on May 26.
A fracas then broke outside the Dewan Sri Antanom in Tenom as Peter's supporters were dissatisfied with the EC decision.
Videos of the incident went viral on social media showing tear gas deployed against the crowd, many of them carrying KDM flags, trying to enter the nomination centre.
Anthony had said that he would be filing a review of the EC's decision at the High Court today to check whether he was qualified to contest in the upcoming polls.
A check at the High Court today confirmed that no such filing was made yet.
On May 26, Peter was sentenced to three years' jail and fined RM50,000, in default 15 months' jail after he was found guilty of forging a letter for a Mechanical and Electrical Systems (M&E) maintenance work at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).
He obtained a stay of execution of the jail sentence pending an appeal at the High Court. However, the court ordered a RM50,000 fine to be paid on the day of the conviction.