KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan became the first party in Sabah to name a candidate to contest in the 15th General Election (GE15).
Party president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal named former Sabah Muslim Lawyers Association president Datuk Adnan Puteh as the candidate for Sipitang in the south-west.
Adnan, 64, is likely to face Bersatu's Datuk Yamani Hafez Musa, the son of former chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman.
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Shafie made the announcement on Friday (Oct 14) during the Sipitang stop of his pre-GE15 tour of the state.
"Today I announce Adnan Puteh as the Warisan candidate for Sipitang. He is from Sipitang, a senior lawyer. It was not easy to persuade him (to be a candidate). We studied in London together.
"Adnan will be a firm voice for Sabah, to fight for our rights in Parliament," he said.
Observers said the surprise announcement, ahead of the Election Commission setting the dates for GE15, showed Warisan was focused on winning the parliamentary constituency, which covers the state seats of Sindumin and Lumadan.
Warisan won the Sindumin state seat in 2018 through Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob, who joined the party after quitting Umno ahead of GE14.
Yusof retained the seat in the 2020 snap state election but left Warisan to become a Gabungan Rakyat Sabah-friendly independent last year and rejoined Umno in May this year.
The Lumadan seat was won by Parti Bersatu Sabah's Datuk Ruslan Muharam in 2020.
Yamani Hafez, who won in Sipitang on a Barisan-Umno ticket in 2018 GE, joined Bersatu after the national party spread its wings to Sabah in 2019.
If fielded again, he is expected to contest under the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) banner, as Sabah Bersatu is one of the coalition's five component parties.
Sipitang is among the west coast Sabah Parliament seats that were once Barisan Nasional strongholds.
Shafie, who left Umno in 2016 after being suspended, has blamed Musa for the move. Shafie led Warisan with allies Pakatan Harapan in 2018 that saw his fledgling party take over Musa's state government in the 2018 state polls.
Musa attempted a failed comeback in 2020 when he engineered assemblymen crossovers to grab back the state government. However, it failed to materialise when Shafie called for a snap election.
Shafie lost the state government to GRS while Musa was not fielded by Umno to defend his seat in the September 2020 state election.
