KOTA KINABALU: Former Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia is set to make another bid to win the Pintasan state seat that he narrowly lost by 84 votes in the 2020 state election.
Pandikar, who is Parti Usno president, is expected to be fielded as the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) candidate for Pintasan, replacing the coalition’ s incumbent Datuk Fairuz Renddam, who defeated him in the last election.
“With the grace of God, YES,” he replied in a text message when asked whether he will be GRS’s Pintasan candidate for the Nov 29 Sabah election.
It is learned that Fairuz, who is from Gagasan Rakyat, would make way for Pandikar, a party president, in the six-party GRS coalition.
Pandikar said that apart from Pintasan, Usno expects to get a second seat under GRS.
“May be two seats. Another one is Sekong (in Batu Sapi, Sandakan). We have been working in Sekong. I think we deserve to be the candidate there,” he said.
Fairuz won the seat for GRS (then contesting on a PN-Bersatu ticket)) after picking up 2,744 votes against Pandikar's 2,660 votes in a six-corner fight.
Pandikar, a veteran Sabah politician, had served as a state minister prior to being made Speaker from 2008 to 2018.
He subsequently took over Usno and contested the 2020 state election but his party did not win any seats. It eventually was admitted into GRS.
