KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Barisan Nasional will field a candidate in the Pintasan state seat amid a candidacy tussle among the parties within their opponents in Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS).
Sabah Barisan chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin confirmed that Barisan would be fielding a candidate from Umno for the seat in Kota Belud district, about 80km north of the state capital.
However, he did not name the potential candidate only saying that the individual will be “winnable and acceptable to the people” to take on the GRS candidate for the seat held by the ruling coalition government.
Bung Moktar said this during a kenduri at the Kampung Nanamun event organised by Tadzul Radim under the ABM Sabah Region on Tuesday (Oct 29) night.
“All candidates proposed have their own strengths, we will choose the best to serve the people,” he said, in urging party members to be united in ensuring the chosen candidates in facing the Nov 29 Sabah election.
Incumbent Pintasan rep Datuk Fairuz Renddan is from GRS’ Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan) but also being sought by Usno led by Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia.
Last weekend, Pandikar said that his party wanted the Pintasan seat under the GRS as he intended to make a political comeback.
Fairuz won the Pintasan seat with an 84-vote majority on the Perikatan Nasional-Bersatu ticket in the last state election defeating Pandikar in a six-corner contest.
Fairuz garnered 2,744 votes while his nearest rival Pandikar picked up 2,660 votes.
In the last state election, Perikatan and Barisan worked together with Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) on an electoral pact under a loose coalition banner of GRS to topple the Parti Warisan-led state government of Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal in September 2020.
Barisan did not contest the Pintasan seat under the pact.
GRS now registered with its anchor Gagasan led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, who left Bersatu in December 2022, is forging an electoral seat sharing pact with Pakatan Harapan.
Both the one-time coalition partners, GRS and Sabah Barisan, are odds since their fallout in January 2023 and are set to contest against each other in the Nov 29 state election.
