KIMANIS POLLS | Sabah Chief Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal has expressed his gratitude that the Sabah Pakatan Harapan leadership has unanimously agreed on letting his party Warisan contest in the upcoming Kimanis by-election.

According to a report in Free Malaysia Today, Shafie (above) was speaking after a meeting held last night by Sabah Harapan chairperson Christina Liew and attended by state DAP, Amanah and Bersatu leaders who endorsed the idea of Warisan fielding a candidate.

Bersatu has previously expressed interest in nominating its candidate for the seat. 

The Kimanis seat held by former foreign minister Anifah Aman fell vacant when the Federal Court on Dec 2 upheld the decision of the Election Court to nullify the constituency's polling results on May 8, 2018.

A by-election date is expected to be announced soon.

The petition was filed by defeated Warisan candidate Karim Bujang who narrowly lost the seat to Anifah by 153 votes.

Shafie said he would inform Dr Mahathir Mohamad of the decision when he meets the prime minister in Putrajaya on Dec 16 during which he will also discuss the oil royalty issue alongside Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg.

Taking a stake in Petronas

Shafie said he won’t pre-empt talk that Putrajaya may consider selling a stake in Petronas to Sabah.

“There have been a number of discussions on the oil royalty with the authorities and Petronas previously.

“We had forwarded the state’s options to Petronas and we will look at the practicality of each of them and decide which one will work best for all parties - Petronas, the Sabah and Sarawak governments and Putrajaya,” he told reporters at a function in Kota Kinabalu.

The prime minister had said in an interview with Reuters that the government would consider selling Petronas stakes to Sabah and Sarawak, as the two states were demanding a bigger share of revenues from oil extracted in their territories.

Mahathir said that the federal government could not meet the states’ demand to increase the royalties paid by Petronas from 5 percent to 20 percent but that the government could let go of its stakes in smaller units of Petronas.