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KOTA KINABALU: Outspoken Sabah politician Tan Sri Bernard Dompok is set to announce that he is stepping down as Upko president on Wednesday.
The 64-year-old veteran politician is scheduled to make a press conference on his resignation that could take effect immediately or within a month of the announcement to facilitate a smooth transition, party sources said on Monday.
The decision to call it quits comes nearly 10-months after Dompok, a former federal minister, was defeated by political upstart Darell Leiking of PKR in the Penampang MP seat in the May general election last year.
The party sources said that Dompok intends to make way for the younger leadership to take over the party by giving them ample time to prepare for the next general election expected in four years’ time.
Upko deputy president Datuk Wilfred Tanggau is expected to take over as acting president in accordance to the party constitution.
The party sources said Upko had recommended to the Prime Minister for Tanggau to take over as a federal minister to replace Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Ewon Ebin.
Ewon had lost his bid for the party deputy president post to Tanggau at last October party election that had returned Dompok unopposed to the party he founded in 1994.
Dompok's political career started in 1985 with the then fledgling Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) led by Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan that toppled the Berjaya government of Datuk Harris Salleh.
However, Dompok left PBS with many senior leaders to form Party Democratic Sabah (later renamed Upko) as the three-week old PBS government collapsed in a spate of defections after the 1994 state elections.
In the 1999 state elections, Dompok, who was then chief minister, was defeated in his Moyog state seat though Barisan Nasional won the state elections.
He later moved base from his Penampang base to the Ranau parliament seat where he successfully won Ranau in the 1999 general election after which he was made a federal minister.
He returned to Penampang in the 2008 general election but lost the seat in 2013.
Dompok is widely credited for his outspoken views of state rights and religious issues and was instrumental in getting the Kadazandusun language introduced as a subject in schools in Sabah.
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