Sabah Barisan to team up with Pakatan

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Barisan Nasional is fine-tuning political cooperation with Pakatan Harapan here for the coming state election, it has been revealed.

Sabah Umno chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin said the party would discuss the matter with the state Barisan committee to ensure success in the polls due by September next year.

He said a pact between Barisan and Pakatan for the state election would be the basis for political stability and prosperity in the state, adding that the matter was discussed during the Sabah Umno meeting on Sunday.

Bung Moktar said Sabah Umno backed Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s statement that the Barisan-Pakatan campaign in the coming Mahkota state by-election in Johor be used as a model by the unity government for the Sabah polls.

“As a strategic move, the state leadership is urged to help in the Mahkota by-election campaign to strengthen Barisan-Pakatan cooperation and ensure victory for the Barisan candidate,” he said in a Facebook post.

The Kinabatangan MP said that the campaign model for the Mahkota by-election would be used as a guide for the Sabah polls.

He said the party’s divisions in Sabah had affirmed the preparedness at the grassroots level for the state election.

“If there is any room for improvement, we will act immediately to ensure the election machinery is prepared at all times,” he added.

Sabah Pakatan is currently working with the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) state government led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor after Bung Moktar pulled Sabah Barisan out of the GRS coalition in 2023.

Hajiji is keen on an electoral pact with Sabah Pakatan while some of component parties – Sabah STAR, Parti Usno and Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) – are pushing for GRS to go it alone.

Bung Moktar has refused to work with Hajiji, claiming GRS had not kept its pledges to Sabah Barisan when they worked together to topple the Warisan-Pakatan state government in the 2020 snap state election.

Parti Warisan, which is a part of the federal unity government, has remained in opposition at the state level and has so far shown little interest in forming an electoral pact with local or national parties.