DAP state deputy chairman, Chiew Chin Sing said that he would not know the grounds substantiated by the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) president Datuk William Mawan Ikom to say that Barisan Nasional would be facing a tough fight in Bintulu.

"I do not know why he have said that but as far as far I am concerned, we are also facing an uphill task as much as in any other places that we would be contesting in the State (in this parliamentary election)," he said when interviewed here on Thursday.

William Mawan in a recent press statement revealed that SPDP who represented Barisan Nasional in the constituency is expecting a tough fight particularly from DAP.

Chiew said that the Barisan Nasional still possessed the advantage in Bintulu apparently for their ability to place a full time elected representative in Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing to serve the people for the last five years.

Hours earlier in a press conference in Sibu by DAP State chairman Wong Ho Leng, Chiew was announced to be the candidate of DAP to contest in the Bintulu constituency which he had lost to Tiong in the 1999 parliamentary election when the latter was still with SNAP.

However, following Tiong's decision to join SPDP, SNAP had joined the fray and actively promoting their Kidurong chairman Dr William Lau Hieng Kie to become their candidate for the constituency in the election.

Chiew, who is also the Kidurong state assemblyman, added that the challenge mounted by Sarawak National Party (SNAP) to vie for the seat would not necessarily be to the advantage of DAP in Bintulu that had notably being enjoying "consistent number of votes in the past election."

"All I could say now is to tell all the voters who had been with us all this while to give us another chance to continue to create a healthy democracy and not to be swayed away by the current political situations," he added.