Warisan secretary-general Loretto Padua (above) has dismissed a news report which claimed that his party's fall as the ruling party of Sabah was imminent.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, Loretto claimed that the news report by Singapore's Straits Times yesterday was "old news" that was being repeated.

Loretto said that the likelihood of unseating Warisan in Sabah was slim because the Warisan-led coalition had a two-thirds grip on the state assembly.

"They have been saying for a long time that the Sabah government will change because of defections.

"Warisan has a bigger majority than what Muhyiddin (Yassin) has in Parliament, you know," said Loretto.

According to the Straits Times' report published yesterday morning, Sabah was "on the verge" of changing government as 14 lawmakers were about to defect and back a new government led by Sibuti lawmaker Musa Aman.

For a change of government to happen, Musa would have to have the support of up to 34 lawmakers.

However, Straits Times updated their report late last night claiming that two potential defector lawmakers had gotten cold feet.

Since late February, Perikatan Nasional has successfully formed new state governments in Johor, Malacca, Perak and Kedah.

Speculation that Sabah was to follow suit began in mid-June with the defections of Kuala Penyu and Sugut assemblypersons from Upko.

Some of Warisan's assemblypersons

Even with their defection, the Warisan-led government - which includes allies Upko, DAP and PKR - collectively still hold 43 or slightly over two-thirds of the 60 elected seats in the state assembly.

Meanwhile, the lawmakers for Kapayan, Elopura, Tandek, Tanjung Kapor, Sri Tanjung, Likas and Moyog have claimed that they have received overtures from PN proxies.

The matter came up in Parliament yesterday when Warisan Youth chief and Sepanggar MP Azis Jamman told the House that he had received text messages of an "offer" coming from "Number One".

Yesterday, Warisan permanent chairperson Liew Vui Keong told Malaysiakini in an interview that rumours of the Warisan administration's collapse was "absolute nonsense" but acknowledged that an attempted "buying spree" had occurred. 

Additional reporting by Kow Gah Chie.

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