BERNAMA
10/09/2020 09:36 PM
KOTA KINABALU, Sept 10 -- Perikatan Nasional (PN) today announced that they will contest 29 seats in the Sabah State Election later this month, and will probably contest against Barisan Nasional (BN) for three of the seats.
The three seats are Paginatan, Tulid dan Sook.
Head of Sabah Bersatu Leadership Council Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor appeared shocked to learn about the matter from the reporters who asked for his response during the press conference to announce the 29 seats to be contested by PN, which was held a few hours after BN announced their candidates.
“I am not able to confirm the list of UMNO candidates...I cannot respond to this matter because I don't have the list and was not aware of the matter, let’s wait and see,” he said.
However, he said he really hoped that the matter could be resolved soon to avoid the PN-BN contest.
“Let’s not have it (PN-BN contest) because we want to win (the election). We will look into it (to meet with BN). Nomination day is Saturday, we will try to make things good for everyone,” he said.
Bersatu, Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) and Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) are the component parties of PN and they will use PN’s logo in the state election, while BN, which is PN’s ally, will use BN’s logo.
Hajiji said 60 per cent of their candidates were new faces with potential to ensure victory for the coalition.
“These are Sabah PN’s candidates who will be contesting to represent their respective constituencies.
“We are fielding new faces to re-energise PN. We are a team,” he said after leading the announcement of the PN candidates, which was also attended by STAR president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan and SAPP president Datuk Yong Teck Lee.
Meanwhile, Sabah Bersatu deputy chief Datuk Masidi Manjun said the possibility of former Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman being in PN camp, especially Bersatu, was a non-issue as the party had already announced its candidates.
“We have announced our candidates, so there’s no issue about him being in the list,” he said.
Earlier, Sabah BN chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin was reported as saying that Musa did not apply to be fielded as UMNO/BN candidate in the state election, hence his name was not being listed among the candidates to represent the coalition in the state election.
-- BERNAMA
