‘Giant-killer’ Uda ready to bring changes to Petagas

Warisan’s Uda Sulai overcame incumbent Yahya Hussin's record as a five-term assemblyman to register a shock win with a 208 vote majority.

Uda Sulai earned the title ‘giant-killer’ after defeating former Sabah deputy CM Yahya Hussin in the Petagas state seat.

KOTA KINABALU: Before last week’s general election, chances were that not many would recognise the name Uda Sulai.

However, the 75-year-old Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) candidate is now known as the “giant-killer” after defeating Yahya Hussin, the former Sabah deputy chief minister, in the May 9 polls for the state seat of Petagas.

Uda entered the three-way battle for Petagas with Yahya and Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah’s Ester Otion, knowing that Yahya had held the seat for the last five terms.

Having defeated Yahya, Uda, who is Warisan’s oldest candidate, is now the talk of the town.

Yahya was one of three Sabah deputy chief ministers deposed in the last election, with the other two being PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who lost in Tambunan, and Gerakan vice-president Raymond Tan, who fell in Tanjong Papat.

Uda, who has long experience in the civil service, contested on a PBS ticket in the 1999 general election but was unsuccessful.

This time around, he obtained 6,526 votes to beat Yahya with a 208-vote majority for the Petagas seat, which has 17,843 registered voters. The voter turnout was 80.2%.

Ester lost his deposit after collecting a mere 760 votes.

Petagas, alongside with Tanjung Aru, comes under the Putatan parliamentary seat.

All three were considered Barisan Nasional forts but fell to the opposition, with Tanjung Aru won by Warisan vice-president Junz Wong and Putatan by PKR’s Awang Husaini Sahari.

Mindful of his predecessor’s failure, Uda said he wanted to bring “big changes” to Petagas, which is just 10 minutes’ drive from the state capital.

He said his prime focus was to develop the tourism sector and take advantage of the state’s airport’s location in his constituency.

Other areas to be looked at are the drainage system and the building of a new hospital and basic infrastructure.

“We will develop Putatan, particularly Petagas, giving attention to tourism because this area does not possess products that can attract tourists to come,” he said. -FMT