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KOTA KINABALU – Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s 11-hour speech has failed to unravel the overlapping claims for seats among his allies in Sabah’s state elections, raising questions about the unity within his Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
On Saturday (September 12), which was the day of the nomination for the September 26 poll, the prime minister announced an alleged alliance, nicknamed Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, of the three factions of the state aligned with him in the state.
However, after the nominations closed, they collided at 17, or nearly a quarter of the 73 seats at stake, hurting their chances of overthrowing the Parti Warisan Sabah-led administration.
This could herald future disagreements between the parties formally registered in Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s NP, the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN), and the smaller parties that support the prime minister when general elections are held, which are expected in months.
“This is a preview of what will happen in the general elections. Previous PMs were leaders of a single ruling pact, BN, an established coalition. But now the previous agreements or the allocation of seats have collapsed,” said the director of the risk consultancy BowerGroupAsia, Adib Zalkapli, to The Times of the Strait.
After the shocking end of Umno’s six-decade rule in 2018, most of the BN parties left the coalition, but later regrouped under the leadership of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia chairman Muhyiddin, when defections toppled the previous government of Pakatan Harapan (PH) in Kuala Lumpur in February.
The parties that make up the federal government are now grouped under at least four separate umbrellas.
Accommodating Bersatu, which wants to be an important national party given that its leader, be it the ousted Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad or Muhyiddin, had been prime minister for the past two years, means that other parties will have to accept fewer seats than they seem reluctant. what to do.
Former BN Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) component, who once led the state government in the 1980s, decided to now compete under his own banner despite being persuaded by BN and PN to use their logos.
“There is strong anti-Malaya sentiment as Sabahans want more autonomy,” a senior PBS official told ST. “So strategically we are using our own flag and if we win the majority of the 22 seats we contested, why shouldn’t we claim the post of chief minister instead of Umno or Bersatu?”
One of the top leaders of the Sabah NP told ST that “the problem now is that we have three separate bodies that unilaterally issue credentials for candidates instead of before, when there was only one candidate with the BN flag in any electoral district.” .
The prime minister flew to Sabah early Friday and planned a quick breakfast with party leaders, which turned into a nearly two-hour showdown that failed to find a solution to the 11 overlapping contests at the time.
Umno President Zahid Hamidi said after the meeting that all parties had reached a consensus to avoid clashes that would divide support.
But even after an evening meeting, the majority stood firm on the day of the nomination, leading to a rare event in Malaysia where members of the federal government find themselves fighting their own allies in an election.
“The important thing is that we will work as a team to form a government that develops Sabah. Members at all levels must put aside all disagreements and old grudges to embrace a new spirit of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah. No party can form a government.” Muhyiddin said after the nominations were closed.
But the suggestion in his speech that Bersatu’s head of state Hajiji Noor be appointed prime minister was immediately rejected by Umno, who insisted that a decision would be made only after the results were known.
Given Umno’s reluctance to join the PN, everything indicates that Sabah’s impasse between the parties of the pact will be repeated in the next general elections.
Umno and Parti Islam SeMalaysia, another key member of the NP, have been campaigning for new elections to end the instability stemming from the government’s slim 113-109 majority in Parliament. Muhyiddin has also stated that he wants a stronger personal mandate.
But with 222 parliamentary seats and nearly 500 state assembly seats up for grabs, it will be far more difficult to resolve than intractable objections over Sabah’s 73-member legislative chamber.
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