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TAMPARULI: Perikatan Nasional has distanced himself from independent candidates who claim to be friends with them in Sabah state elections, says his secretary general, Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin (Photo).
He said he has never asked any of the candidates to object to that claim.
“The only party we allow to say that it is friendly to Perikatan is Parti Bersatu Sabah. But because there are so many independent candidates claiming to be friendly to Perikatan, we change that status to ‘partner’, which is better than saying ‘friend’ ‘,” he said.
He stressed that Perikatan already had his partners and has never entitled any independent candidate to consider himself a friend of Perikatan.
Hamzah has also instructed the Perikatan campaign workers to remove any material suggesting that any of the independent candidates was affiliated with the coalition.
When asked if Perikatan could court any victorious independent candidate after the election, Hamzah did not compromise.
“How will we know if they will win? All of that is hypothetical,” he said.
On the other hand, Perikatan is moving from the initial tension of confrontation between its own partners in Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), and calls on the parties to share a common goal and work to resolve the concerns of the people.
He said the clash started when Umno from Barisan Nasional also contested Paginatan’s seat, which was initially given to Sabah STAR.
“Subsequently, all the parties began to present candidates there. Although we could not do anything to stop them at that time, I now ask all Perikatan candidates to focus on a common goal,” he added.
GRS, which is made up of Barisan, Perikatan and PBS, is fighting each other in 16 other seats including Bengkoka, Matunggong, Tandek, Kadamaian, Tg Aru, Kapayan, Moyog, Lumadan, Tambunan, Bingkor, Liawan, Melalap, Tulid, Sook , Telupid and Karamunting.
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