After Muhyiddin moots Hajiji, Zahid says BN and allies will decide on CM
SABAH POLLS | After clashing over seat allocations, PN and BN are now engaged in a dispute over its Sabah chief minister candidate.
Earlier today, Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin proposed Sabah Bersatu chief Hajiji Mohd Noor as the chief minister should the state opposition pact win.
He admitted that the proposal would need the agreement of its PN and BN partners...
SABAH POLLS | After clashing over seat allocations, PN and BN are now engaged in a dispute over its Sabah chief minister candidate.
Earlier today, Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin proposed Sabah Bersatu chief Hajiji Mohd Noor as the chief minister should the state opposition pact win.
He admitted that the proposal would need the agreement of its PN and BN partners.
Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has now appeared to dissent the choice.
Without explicitly referring to Muhyiddin or Hajiji, Zahid tweeted that any chief minister candidate will be determined after the election is over.
Read more: Sabah Decides 2020: Making sense of the players, parties and battles
“BN has decided that the Sabah chief minister will be chosen by BN assemblypersons and its political allies when we have enough seats to form the new state government,” he said.
Meanwhile, Umno information chief Shahril Sufian Hamdan was more overt in saying that BN was in the dark about Hajiji’s candidature.
“This was not discussed with BN. A media statement or coverage will be made,” he commented in a Facebook post sharing news on Hajiji’s candidature.
Partners in the Perikatan Nasional federal government, Umno’s BN and Bersatu’s PN have just formed the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah pact with Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).
However, the past few days have indicated hiccups in their working relationship.
A joint candidate announcement ceremony was cancelled and Muhyiddin had to step in at the eleventh hour last night to resolve the 11 clashes between BN and PN.
Meanwhile, Armada Youth in a statement later, chastised Shahril, urging the latter to read beyond the headlines.
The youth wing's information division said it was clear from Muhyiddin's remarks that the prime minister was only proposing Hajiji as a candidate and that this would first have to be discussed with all PN allies including BN.
They noted that Shahril has since issued a statement acknowledging that Muhyiddin had not unilaterally appointed Hajiji as the chief minister candidate.
"Bersatu Youth advises Shahril to be more careful when issuing statements in the future," they said.
Follow our coverage of the Sabah state election here.
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