BN, Harapan announce pact for 17th Sabah state polls

Summary

• BN and Pakatan Harapan announce a joint pact for the Sabah state election.

• State BN and Harapan leaderships will detail the extent of cooperation, and national-level top leaderships will finalise all decisions.

BN and Pakatan Harapan today announced a joint pact to face the upcoming 17th Sabah state election.

The decision was revealed in a statement jointly issued by Harapan secretary-general, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, and the unity government secretariat head, Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki. The former also serves as Umno secretary-general.

"A high-level leadership meeting between Harapan president, Anwar Ibrahim, and BN chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on May 8 reached a consensus to cooperate in facing the Sabah state election.

"The form of the cooperation, including matters of seat allocation and negotiations with any other parties, will be jointly detailed by the Sabah state leaderships of Harapan and BN. All decisions will be finalised by the top leadership of Harapan and BN at the national level," the statement read.

Early this month, Sabah Umno called for a formal memorandum of understanding with Harapan and other parties to prevent defections in the state election.

Sabah Umno information chief Suhaimi Nasir said the MOU is important to prevent a repeat of past instances where party leaders defected.

Anti-hopping law

The MOU will also take into account existing gaps in the anti-hopping legislation that was introduced into federal law in 2022 and adopted in Sabah in the following year.

Suhaimi pointed out that the anti-hopping law doesn’t cover BN and Harapan as coalitions.

“So, when things like this happen, we hope that for the 17th state election, there will be genuine understanding among the coalition parties. Otherwise, even we are hesitant and fearful.

“It’s better to walk with an enemy in front of you than to walk alongside someone who turns out to be the enemy within. That’s what we fear, because we’ve been betrayed too many times,” he added.

Malaysiakini previously reported that Sabah BN confirmed it would contest 40 out of the 73 seats in the state election, which is expected to be held soon.

Suhaimi said the remaining 33 seats would be allocated to Harapan.

However, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah was also planning to discuss potential cooperation with Harapan for the state election. GRS chairperson Hajiji Noor stated that the date for these discussions has yet to be determined.

The Sabah chief minister had also hinted that GRS would maintain its cooperation with Harapan, despite Sabah BN also announcing plans to collaborate with Harapan.

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