Ex-Sabah CM wants national parties to stay out of state polls

Former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee has called on Perikatan Nasional to stay out of the state’s next election.

Yong, whose Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) is affiliated with both PN and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) state coalition, said his party maintained its stance against national parties contesting in the upcoming Sabah polls.

“We are still part of PN and I have said that PN should not contest in the Sabah state election.

“They (PN leaders) were upset but this is our stand.

“But there is no law prohibiting (any party from contesting), so there is no need to get upset over our stand,” the New Straits Times reported Yong (above) as saying after SAPP’s bi-annual conference.

PAS’ aim on Sabah

This came after PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, whose party is the most dominant in PN, said that his party needed to gain a foothold in Sabah.

Hadi said he saw PAS as having a future in the state as many of those at the party’s convention in Kota Kinabalu over the weekend were youths.

“PAS must strengthen its position in Sabah. To implement this, we must win (outright) in Sabah or there must at least be seats that we win,” said Hadi, adding that the many Umno members and youths voted for the Islamist party into power in four states.

Interference

Yong previously said the presence of national parties in state polls was a form of interference in Sabah’s matters.

He added yesterday that SAPP will contest under the GRS banner in the next Sabah election.

PAS has a sole assemblyperson, Aliakbar Gulasan, who was appointed when PN was still part of the state government after the September 2020 state election.

The situation in the state changed after Chief Minister Hajiji Noor and his supporters left Bersatu to be direct members of GRS in December 2022.

Speculation about early state polls began last year but now it is likely to be held in 2025.

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