Perikatan to contest Sabah polls, tells SAPP to review position if unhappy

KOTA KINABALU: Perikatan Nasional will contest the upcoming Sabah election, says Bersatu vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee.

Dismissing its national partner Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee's call to Perikatan to stay out of the state election, Kiandee said that Bersatu and its partners in Perikatan will contest with its own symbols in the state polls due by next year.

"We will contest the Sabah election, it is the decision of the Perikatan supreme council. I don't know what Yong is suggesting outside the council.

"We are here in Sabah and we will contest," said Kiandee, who is Sabah Bersatu chairman.

"If Yong is not happy with the Perikatan supreme council decision to contest Sabah election, he can review SAPP's position in the coalition," he said when contacted Tuesday (July 9).

Kiandee said that Yong had not been attending the Perikatan supreme council meetings since before the six state elections in Peninsular Malaysia in 2023.

SAPP has positioned itself in a conflicted political stance - SAPP is a member of the Opposition Perikatan at the national level while also being a member of the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) ruling coalition at the state level.

GRS, led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, is part of the national ruling unity government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

On Monday (July 8), Yong told reporters that SAPP had told its national coalition partner Perikatan not to contest the Sabah election.

He said SAPP will contest under the local coalition GRS formed under the auspices of its national chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin during the 2020 Sabah election.

SAPP remains steadfast that the party was with the Opposition Perikatan coalition at the national level while it remains with GRS at the state level.

"Sabahans now expect national coalitions to give more leeway to Sabah parties and that peninsular parties would stay out of Sabah elections, especially state elections," he said.

The loose coalition of GRS, together with Sabah Barisan Nasional and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), toppled the Parti Warisan-Pakatan Harapan led state government of Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal in the September 2020 state elections.

However, after the November 2022 parliamentary election, GRS assemblymen led by Hajiji, who was then Sabah Bersatu chairman, abandoned Perikatan and switched allegiance to the Federal Government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

SAPP, however, did not follow the move to leave Perikatan and remained a member of the national Opposition coalition while remaining with GRS at the state level.

Kiandee said that Bersatu was part of GRS but was illegally ejected when Hajiji left the party in December 2022 and later replaced it (Bersatu) with his own Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat) in the GRS coalition.