KOTA KINABALU: Former chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee was returned unopposed as the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president for his sixth four-year term.
Yong, whose party performed disastrously in the 2013 general election, was given the mandate to continue leading the party he formed and led since 1994 after breaking away from Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).
SAPP election committee chairman Datuk Paul Wong announced that the 57-year-old Yong was returned unopposed after nominations and objection period was closed on Saturday that is set to give him the mandate to lead the party into the next general elections due in 2018,
SAPP failed to win any state or parliament seats in the last elections that came after Yong took SAPP out of the Barisan Nasional following the 2008 general election to sit in the opposition ranks.
The national opposition –PKR and DAP- refused to cut a seat sharing deal with SAPP and other local based opposition parties and the move saw PKR and DAP winning some 11 of the 60 state assembly seats in 2013.
Wong also said that there would be no contests for the three deputy president positions and six vice president posts.
He said incumbent deputy president Amde Sidek and new faces Melanie Chia Chiu Ket and Edward Dagul won the positions uncontested.
The six vice president who were returned unopposed were Jamain Sarudin, Chong Pit Fah, Aloysius Damin Siap, Datu Shuib Datu Mutalib, Encik Japiril Suhaimin and Puan Carrie Fong.
For the 15 supreme council positions, a total of 21 candidates are vying for it at the party’s congress on Aug 31.
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