Shafie wants loyal candidates for snap polls, no hoppers

Warisan president Shafie Apdal said loyalty to the cause would be the main criteria for potential candidates contesting under Warisan and its allies in the forthcoming snap state election.

This is after former Sabah chief minister Musa Aman sought to seize power by enticing government assemblypersons - but Musa was thwarted after the state governor dissolved the state assembly on Shafie's advice, paving the way for fresh polls.

"We will consider new faces who are capable and have education qualifications (as candidates), but the main criteria is not about new faces or qualifications but the fact that they will not jump (defect to another party).

"We can field a degree holder, an expert, a doctor, but if tomorrow they jump then what's the point? What is important is that they must have loyalty to the struggle," Shafie told a press conference in Kota Kinabalu, which was aired live by Borneo Today on Facebook.

Shafie, who is the caretaker Sabah chief minister, said he had also instructed the state legal adviser to look into anti-hopping laws similar to that in Penang.

However, he said, this could only be implemented after the snap election, which must be called within 60 days from the July 30 dissolution of the Sabah Legislative Assembly.

"Actually, even before this, we had looked into the matter, but there are arguments that it (an anti-hopping law) is unconstitutional," he said.

However, Shafie noted that an alternative proposal had been made in the Dewan Rakyat to change to a party-list electoral system, where a seat will be won by a party instead of an individual, rendering individual defections useless.

Shafie said this after chairing a meeting with Warisan, Harapan and Upko leaders.

He said seat negotiations are expected to be resolved by next week and said the three parties have made a commitment to enter the snap election as a coalition.

"You can see us, we are standing here together. We will fight them.

"We will ensure we are united in this election to defeat those who tried to wrest power from us," Shafie said.

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