Muhyiddin keeps promise but allies renege on word, increasing clashes to 17
SABAH POLLS | "Friendly fire" between Perikatan Nasional, BN and PBS in the Sabah polls has intensified after BN and PBS reneged on Thursday's negotiated agreement and fielded more candidates than originally announced, raising the number of seat clashes between them from 11 to 17.
The only coalition that kept its word was PN, which had promised to contest 29 seats in the Sabah election and did exactly that during the nomination process this morning.
PBS which promised to field 15 candidates ended up fielding 22 contenders while BN which promised to field 40 candidates ended up slipping in an extra one.
Even before the last-minute manoeuvring, the allies who refer to themselves as Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, were set to clash in 11 seats under their initial arrangement.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Bersatu president, flew ...
SABAH POLLS | "Friendly fire" between Perikatan Nasional, BN and PBS in the Sabah polls has intensified after BN and PBS reneged on Thursday's negotiated agreement and fielded more candidates than originally announced, raising the number of seat clashes between them from 11 to 17.
The only coalition that kept its word was PN, which had promised to contest 29 seats in the Sabah election and did exactly that during the nomination process this morning.
PBS which promised to field 15 candidates ended up fielding 22 contenders while BN which promised to field 40 candidates ended up slipping in an extra one.
Even before the last-minute manoeuvring, the allies who refer to themselves as Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, were set to clash in 11 seats under their initial arrangement.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Bersatu president, flew into Kota Kinabalu yesterday in a last-ditch effort to prevent clashes in the 11 seats but failed to extract any concessions from the parties.
During nomination this morning, BN decided to field Jamawi Ja'afar in the state seat of Melalap, leading to a clash with PBS.
Jamawi, who defected from Umno to Warisan and later supported former chief minister Musa Aman's failed coup against the Warisan-led Sabah government, was not on the list of Umno candidates that was unveiled on Thursday.
With Jamawi's inclusion, Umno will be contesting 32 seats, followed by five by PBRS and four by MCA, bringing them to a total of 41 seats under the BN logo.
The PN banner is being used by three parties, namely Bersatu (19 seats), Star (eight seats) and SAPP (two seats). PBS is using its own logo.
All these parties, except SAPP, are part of the PN-led federal government but are contesting under three different logos in the Sabah election.
Muhyiddin ensured PN stuck to 29 seats
According to nomination rules, a candidate who wishes to contest under the banner of a certain party and or coalition must receive its consent. This is normally granted by the head of the party or coalition.
In PN's case, the head is Muhyiddin Yassin, who appeared to have put his foot down by not allowing additional candidates than what was already negotiated.
The same could not be said for BN which is led by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and PBS which is led by Maximus Johnity Ongkili.
The biggest surprise perhaps came from PBS, which contested seven more seats than what was agreed upon.
The seven additional seats are Moyog (PBS vs PN), Lumadan (PBS vs BN), Paginatan (PBS vs BN vs PN), Tambunan (PBS vs PN), Bingkor (PBS vs PN), Liawan (PBS vs PN), Tulid (PBS vs BN vs PN).
Read more: Sabah Decides 2020: Making sense of the players, parties and battles
The seven extra seats mean PBS will now face friendly fire in five additional seats and aggravate the internal clash in two others where BN and PN are already at loggerheads.
All of PBS' latest clashes with PN are specifically with Star while its clashes with BN is with Umno and PBRS.
PBS deputy president Radin Malleh acknowledged that the party had initially planned to contest 15 seats but noted that even then, there would have been clashes in at least five of them.
“Of course, we took this in good faith that the contest would be carried out in a manner to strengthen the position of PN in Sabah," he said.
PBS claims it's a 'friendly contest'
He said to this end, PBS conducted an analysis of Kadazan Dusun Murut (KDM) constituencies, based on requests from the grassroots, and decided to contest in six such seats.
"Coincidentally, these seats were those allocated to Star. In the seat allocation meeting chaired by PN’s secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin, we had, of course, raised and appealed for our requests to contest in these seats so it is not new,” Malleh said in a statement.
Malleh also accused Star of fielding Anita Baranting in Tandek, a seat which was assigned to PBS. However, a check with the Election Commission showed that Anita was contesting as an independent candidate and not as a PN or Star candidate.
Malleh (above) added that PBS also decided to contest in Lumadan due to requests from its Muslim grassroots. However, he maintained that all of them were "friendly contests" and stressed PBS' commitment to cooperation.
The 17 seats that will see clashes between either BN, PN and PBS are as follow:
N02 Bengkoka - Umno vs PBS
N05 Matunggong - PBRS vs PBS
N07 Tandek - PBRS vs PBS
N11 Kadamaian - PBRS vs PBS
N22 Tanjung Aru - Umno vs PBS
N25 Kapayan - MCA vs PBS
N26 Moyog - Star vs PBS
N34 Lumadan - Umno vs PBS
N38 Paginatan - Umno vs Star vs PBS
N39 Tambunan - Star vs PBS
N40 Bingkor - Star vs PBS
N41 Liawan - Star vs PBS
N42 Melalap - Umno vs PBS
N44 Tulid - Star vs PBRS vs PBS
N45 Sook - Star vs PBRS
N47 Telupid - Umno vs PBS
N54 Karamunting MCA vs PBS
No clashes in Warisan Plus
Meanwhile, the BN-PN-PBS alliance's rival coalition, Warisan Plus, comprising Warisan, PKR, DAP, Amanah and Upko, will see zero internal clashes.
Even though PKR was initially upset it was only assigned seven out of the 14 seats it wanted, PKR president Anwar Ibrahim appeared to have kept his word by not authorising the use of PKR's logo beyond its seven candidates.
DAP is also contesting seven seats while Amanah is contesting one. Both are using Warisan's banner.
Interestingly, the Election Commission lists Amanah as contesting under its own logo.
However, Sabah Amanah election director Harieyadi Karmin insisted that Amanah was using Warisan's logo and said the EC may have made an error.
"I think its a mistake. I will refer to the EC. Our nomination was accepted by the EC as a Warisan candidate, not Amanah," he told Malaysiakini.
The EC has since changed the Amanah logo to a Warisan one.
Warisan is contesting 46 seats while Upko, which is using its own logo, is contesting 12 seats.
There are a total of 73 seats up for grabs in the Sabah election. Sabahans will go to the polls on Sept 26.
Follow Malaysiakini's coverage of the Sabah state election here.
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