Sabah cannot go into another state election so soon, says Bung

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah cannot go into another state election as the 2020 Gabungan Rakyat Sabah mandate given to the coalition will be defended despite political realignments between Barisan Nasional and Perikatan Nasional, says Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin.

The Sabah Barisan chairman said that although the political developments at the national level were seen as critical, GRS and the Sabah government should not be influenced by the developing political alignments at the federal level.

"If we look at the development of national politics, it is very critical and almost every day there are issues that arise (between the parties) but we should not allow ourselves to be dragged into the developments at the federal level.

"We must look at the political situation in Sabah as well, where we must defend the GRS government in any situation," the Sabah Umno chairman told reporters after giving out mandarin oranges to Sabah MCA chairman Lu Yen Tung and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) advisor Datuk Vincent Shia in conjunction with Chinese New Year celebrations on Saturday (Jan 29).

Bung, who is also Deputy Chief Minister, said that the people in Sabah would definitely be angry with the leadership if the state election was called again hardly two years after the last.

"We do not want an election to take place. We just had our election and if there is another election, it will definitely irk the people and the people will be angry with us," he said.

GRS is made up of four-party Barisan, five-party Perikatan and Parti Bersatu Sabah, a loose coalition formed ahead of the Sept 26, 2020, Sabah snap election that toppled the Warisan Plus government led by Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.

Sabah Perikatan is keen to register GRS as a political coalition but Sabah Barisan has not shown similar interest.