A new party led by former Sabah PKR chairperson Lajim Ukin has been named Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah.

The party's logo will be Mount Kinabalu as a sign of pride for Sabahans and Malaysians, Lajim said.

The application for the formation of the party was sent to the Registrar of Societies (ROS) last Oct 14 and approved on Oct 23, he added.

"Patrick Sadom is my pro-tem president (of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah) and will take over the party as soon as possible, and will also be organising the supreme council," he said.

Lajim also said that he cannot make any promises on cooperating with any opposition coalition for now.

"I cannot promise (cooperation) right now because our foundation has to fight for Sabah first before thinking about any cooperation with any parties based in Peninsular Malaysia," he said.

Lajim had announced in early October that he was resigning from PKR along with two other assemblypersons to form a new Sabah-based party.

The two are Moyog assemblyperson Terrence Siambun from PKR and Likas' Junz Wong from DAP.

Siambun had said he would be joining the new Shafie Apdal-led party, Parti Warisan Sabah, while Wong has yet to make any official announcement.

Lajim, who is also Klias assemblyperson, said Sabah needed to be freed from being a "fixed deposit" for any political force who "only want the support of Sabahans to capture Putrajaya", without respecting the state's position as an equal.

The results of the last Sarawak state elections, where BN won by a super majority, were also seen as a factor for Lajim and other leaders of DAP and PKR in Sabah to leave their respective parties.

Lajim explained that it is time for parties in Sabah not to rely on any party based in the peninsula.

"Peninsula parties are very different than they used to be. We want to see Sabah being led by a local party.

"It's just like us having our own house, without the need to borrow the keys and ask for permission to renovate and such.

"That is the hope of Sabahans now, who want to be able to determine our own direction, not that it's necessarily not the same as Malaysia," he said.

Lajim also said that the formation of his party does not mean that PKR will become buried in Sabah, though he believes that it will lose support.

"There are leaders in PKR who can remain on, but I'm confident they will have less support because Sabahans now want local parties," he said.

He also said that he was confident the party will get 2,600 members throughout Sabah including Labuan within a month.