PKR’s Inanam assemblyperson Dr Roland Chia is rumoured to be ready to resign from his state assembly seat, which would inevitably cause a by-election in Sabah.

His official Facebook account today carried a post saying that he would resign due to “health reasons”, while thanking Inanam voters.

“Due to health reasons, I will step down as Adun Inanam. I thank the Inanam voters and party leadership for your support over last 17 months,” he said.

Malaysiakini is unable to verify the news with Roland personally as he is currently out of the country.

However, his party PKR told Malaysiakini that they are aware of the postings and the talk on social media but have not received any official confirmation themselves.

Both PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli and vice-president Darrell Leiking said they had not received confirmation on the matter.

Rafizi confirmed that Chia is out of the country and that the party is unable to confirm the status of Roland’s intention to resign.

But he said that Roland’s officers have confirmed that he is facing some health issues.

“His officers have confirmed that he is suffering from health problems, though the status of it could not be verified,” he said.

“Until I am personally in touch with him, I cannot confirm of the decision to resign is final or confirm anything,” he added.

Sabah PKR chief Lajim Ukin, according to a Bernama report later, said that the talk about Chia’s resignation remains as rumours for the time being.

“As of now, it is just a rumour. I checked with the Sabah legislative assembly speaker (Salleh Said) and was informed that there has been no resignation of any assemblyperson,” he said.

Ronald is a first term assemblyperson for Inanam, who defeated PBS’ Joseph Paulus Lantip by a 3,202 vote majority in the last elections.

The constituency has 24,403 voters and 44 percent of them are non-Muslim bumiputeras, followed by 32 percent Chinese and 22 percent Muslim bumiputeras.