KOTA KINABALU: Five of six Parti Warisan Sabah assemblymen rumoured to be crossing over to Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) have laughed off the speculation triggered by a post on the Sabahkini2 website.
Four of them - Assaffal Alian (Tungku), Mohammad Mohamarin (Banggi), Ben Chong (Tg Kapor) and Norazlina Arin (Kunak) - took to Facebook to deny the rumours and scoff at the claims.
Most of them joked about the suggestion that they were crossing over to the ruling coalition but also hit out at the portal which published their names and photographs and claimed they would be the next set of assemblymen to quit.
The portal published the speculation after Warisan's Sebatik assemblyman Hassan Gani Amir quit to support GRS as an independent on Thursday (Feb 25).
"Wrong info in Sabahkini2. I don't have the time and money to sue you. Thank you for choosing a cute photo of me," Norazlina said in her post.
Mohammad, in his Facebook post, called the claims "an old script" as he reaffirmed his loyalty to the party and its president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
Chong, who took a more serious tone, said the publication of his picture was done in bad faith in a bid to tarnish his image.
"The idea of jumping is not in my political dictionary. I am with the people and Warisan," he said, adding that he believed opponents of the party were trying to confuse the public.
Darau assemblymen Azhar Matussin, when contacted, denied the claims and stressed that he was not quitting Warisan.
A sixth assemblyman has not yet responded to the claims which appeared earlier on Friday (Feb 26).
Warisan's Datuk Ismaili Bungsu posted on Facebook that all the assemblymen named denied that they were leaving the party when he contacted them individually.