Straight fight between Warisan and BN in Kimanis

KIMANIS POLLS | The Kimanis by-election is set to see a straight fight between Warisan's Karim Bujang and BN's Mohamad Alamin.

No other independent candidate was spotted at the nomination centre located at Dewan Datuk Sri Panglima Mohd Dun Banir, Beaufort at 10am when nominations closed.

Returning officer Jupery Etok has announced that the nominations of both candidates have been accepted.

Mohamad was the first to arrived at 9.07am and completed the nomination process by 9.27am.

Karim arrived at 9.13 am and completed the process by 9.30am.

Earlier there were some moments of provocation when both sets of supporters traded barbs, but police maintained order and kept them apart.

Kimanis is a semi-urban seat of 29644 registered voters where 63.16 percent are Muslim bumiputera, 30.67 percent non-Muslim bumiputra, 3.59 percent Chinese and 2.58 percent others.

The by-election was called after the Federal Court on Dec 2 last year upheld an Election Court ruling that nullified Anifah Aman's 2018 victory for the Kimanis parliamentary seat.

In 2018 general election, Anifah had won the seat with a 156-vote majority, securing 11,942 votes against Karim’s 11,786 votes while another candidate, Jaafar Ismail of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, had obtained 1,300 votes.

Warisan had filed the election petition on June 18, 2018, to challenge the election results.

Karim, 67, was a five-term Bongawan state assemblyperson since 1990 general election under Usno's and BN's ticket.

He served as former state assistant minister in various capacities between 1994 and 2008.

Last year, he left Umno for Warisan and challenged BN's Anifah Aman in Kimanis seat.

The Kimanis Warisan chief is now given a second chance to claim the parliamentary seat.

Mohamad, a 47-year-old lawyer based in Kota Kinabalu, was picked by Sabah BN after a survey was conducted on the ground among Kimanis voters.

Mohamad won the Bongawan state seat in 2013 poll but failed to retain the seat in GE14 last year.

He took over as Kimanis Umno chief after former Kimanis MP Anifah Aman quit the party. - Mkini