KOTA KINABALU: The battle to get back the Beluran parliament seat in the 15th General Election is a personal matter for Sabah Umno, says Datuk Bung Moktar Radin.
"It is personal for Sabah Umno, we will fight tooth and nail to win back our traditional seat," the Sabah Barisan chief said.
Bung ordered the party machinery to go all out to topple Perikatan Nasional's lone candidate Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee, who broke the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS)-Barisan seat sharing pact that had allocated Beluran seat to Barisan.
"Kiandee is a five-term Beluran MP, he won the seat all the time under Barisan. Now, we will bring him down with the same logo (Barisan)," Bung said Monday (Nov 7).
He said Beluran was a unique and traditional Umno seat because it was the first and only Umno seat that was represented by a non-Muslim MP from Umno since 1995.
He said that Barisan was keeping with the tradition of fielding a non-Muslim and local native Benedict Asmat, the former Sandakan Municipal Council president, for the north-eastern Sabah seat which had a mixed population of Kadazandusuns, Tidong and Sungai natives.
Bung said that it was time for Kiandee's five terms to come to an end as he had not brought much development for the area despite being an MP and also a Federal minister.
"Whatever progress brought to Beluran was because of local assemblyman Datuk James Ratib who has been with the people on the ground all this while," he said.
Bung's push for an all out war against Kiandee comes after Kiandee slammed Barisan for allegedly stealing the seat from GRS platform.
Kiandee, the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) vice president, obtained Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's consent to contest on the Perikatan ticket after Sabah Bersatu chairman Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor who leads GRS could not accommodate him as a candidate.
The move put a dent on the GRS-Bersatu pact.
Kiandee had won the Barisan-Umno ticket in 2018 but quit to join Bersatu in 2019.
Kiandee and Benedict were in a five cornered fight with opposition Warisan's Rowiena Rasid, Pakatan Harapan's Felix Joseph Saang and Pejuang's Hausing Samsudin @ Sudin.
A Barisan component Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) candidate Datuk Ewon Ebin also broke ranks when he filed nomination papers on a PBRS logo to contest Ranau that is being defended by GRS's Bersatu incumbent Datuk Jonathan Yasin.
Bung said Barisan machinery in Ranau was focused on helping GRS's Jonathan retain the seat for GRS.
