KOTA KINABALU: A near 50-50 split of the 25 parliamentary seats in Sabah seems to be the formula worked out between Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Barisan Nasional for the 15th General Election (GE15).
GRS, which has five parties, is expected to contest 13 seats while the four-party Sabah Barisan coalition has agreed to contest in the remaining 12.
A key seat, however, being haggled over was the Beluran parliamentary seat held by GRS's Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee.
Some sources indicate that Beluran might be a "free for all" if a deal is not reached while others said that leaders were working towards ensuring that GRS-Barisan goes into GE15 as a close-knit team.
Sabah Barisan is also keen to take the mixed Muslim and non-Muslim native seats in Sabah's north-eastern region.
Both GRS and Barisan leaders have not officially commented on the matter but some party sources have indicated that Chief Minister and GRS chairman Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor and Sabah Barisan chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin have reached a broad consensus on the seat sharing ratio.
The general agreement includes GRS getting some seven Muslim native and mixed native seats, with the bulk of the non-Muslim native and Chinese seats to be shared by its component parties.
Besides Sabah Bersatu, the other parties in GRS are Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), Sabah STAR, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and United Sabah National Organisation (Usno).
However, a source said it was difficult for GRS and the Barisan leadership to please all their nine component parties in sharing the 25 seats as some parties such as PBS and Sabah STAR believe they should be given a bigger stake in the polls.
On the other hand, Barisan, through Umno, will focus on the Muslim bumiputra seats including swapping some of their traditional seats won by GRS-Bersatu in GE14.
According to a source, Barisan is eyeing the Putatan, Sepanggar and Kota Belud seats in the west coast; Kimanis and Beaufort seats in south-western Sabah; Kinabatangan, Kalabakan, Libaran, Beluran and Lahad Datu in the east coast; and Tenom and Pensiangan in the interior.
It is believed Sabah Barisan component Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) will retain the Pensiangan seat it won through its deputy president Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup in GE14. The other two parties in Sabah Barisan are MCA and MIC.
Meanwhile, some sources say that GRS will be taking Ranau, Batu Sapi, Tuaran, Papar, Kudat, Sipitang and Semporna, which are likely to be contested by Bersatu.
However, some sources say that Semporna, held by opposition Parti Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, was under the seats allocated for Umno while GRS-Bersatu will only contest the by-election for the Bugaya state seat.
Other seats allocated to GRS are Kota Marudu, Tawau, Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Keningau and Penampang were likely to be shared between PBS, Sabah STAR and SAPP while Usno is not likely to be given any seat.
Sources said that there were indications that Barisan will take the Beaufort seat from GRS-Bersatu as its incumbent Datuk Seri Azizah Mohd Dun, who is Sabah Bersatu Wanita chief, had indicated an interest in retiring.
Kiandee and Azizah won the seats under a Barisan ticket in the May 2018 general polls but they left the coalition in a mass exodus of state Umno leaders to eventually join Bersatu, which spread its wings to Sabah in March 2019.
It is also unclear at this moment whether PBRS will be content with being given only the Pensiangan seat to contest.
It is learned that the party led by Tan Sri Joseph Kurup had asked for up to six seats to contest in GE15. Besides Pensiangan, the party had wanted to contest the Tawau, Keningau, Ranau, Tenom and Kota Marudu seats.
At the same time, it is unknown if PBS, Sabah STAR and SAPP would be happy with the sharing of the six seats between their parties.
SAPP had wanted the Kota Kinabalu, Sepanggar, Papar, Lahad Datu and Tawau seats in addition to Sandakan while PBS and Sabah STAR had wanted most of the ethnic Kadazandusun, Murut and Rungus, as well as Chinese majority seats.
