PETALING JAYA: Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) vice-president Johnical Rayong Ngipa intends to defend his Engkilili seat for a fifth term in the next Sarawak state election, citing unfinished business in the area.
Rayong said he wanted to see Engkilili being elevated from a sub-district to a full administrative district, adding that this would boost the Sri Aman area’s development, Borneo Post reported.
“My heart is still with the people of Engkilili. We have laid the groundwork over the last 20 years, but the journey isn’t over,” he said.
Rayong first won the Engkilili seat in 2006 with the now-defunct Sarawak National Party, wresting the seat from Barisan Nasional.
He later joined the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and retained the seat under the then Sarawak BN component in 2011, before defending Engkilili again in 2016 as a direct BN candidate.
In 2018, he quit BN to join Wong Soon Koh’s Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) and went on to defend the seat for a fourth term in the 2021 state polls.
PSB was dissolved in 2024 and absorbed into PDP, which is a component of ruling state coalition Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).
In the 2021 polls, Rayong won the seat with a 1,191-vote majority ahead of his closest contender, a GPS candidate from his former party SUPP.
