KOTA KINABALU: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) is keen on the merger with fellow native-based Sabah STAR but its acting president has downplayed it happening before state polls due this year.
Datuk Seri Dr Joachim Gunsalam said that they agreed in principle on the possible merger of the two major native-based multi-racial parties but needed time to resolve various issues.
"I wish we could do it, but the team that’s supposed to look into the merger has not given their report.
"We have to take into account the constitution of both parties and what would be the new one. In principle I am agreeable to the merger," Dr Gunsalam said when contacted Wednesday (March 19).
He was responding to Sabah STAR president Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan's statement that the proposed merger of the two parties with the proposed new name Parti Bersatu Sabah Tanah Airku (PBSTar) could happen before the state election.
PBS is Sabah's oldest party formed in 1985 while Sabah STAR was formed in 2016 with both parties being members of the ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition government led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
Kitingan, who is Deputy Chief Minister I, in an interview last week said the merger would begin with integration of the supreme councils of both parties with him being the protem president. This would be followed by full integration of the parties.
Dr Gusalam said that PBS and Sabah STAR would continue to work under the Bersatu-Solidarity (BEST) pact to win more non-Muslim native seats for GRS.
Currently both parties have 13 state seats from the ethnic Kadazandusun, Murut and Rungus constituencies.
PBS, a multi-racial party that ruled the state from 1985 to 1994, splintered when its top leaders left to join or form non-Muslim native-based parties after a spate of defections that saw Barisan Nasional led by Umno gain its foothold in Sabah.
Following the 2020 state election, PBS and Sabah STAR won 13 out of the 25 non-Muslim native majority seats under GRS.
Other splinter parties from 1994, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), a Sabah Barisan component did not win any seats while Upko, which was aligned to Warisan and Pakatan Harapan, only secured a state seat.
Former chief minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who founded PBS, has backed the proposed PBS - Sabah STAR merger.
