Guessing game not quite over on extra seats in Sabah

Don't read too much into what PM said on 'KPI' for election, says PBS leader while others remained tight-lipped.

KOTA KINABALU: Will it be 60 or 73 state seats up for grabs in Sabah in the coming general election (GE14)?

The guessing game which has continued for more than a year now appeared to be over when Prime Minister Najib Razak told Sabah leaders that Barisan Nasional (BN) should win at least 22 out of 25 parliamentary seats, and 48 of the 60 state seats it currently holds.

Political observers took this to mean that the additional 13 state seats now awaiting ratification by Parliament would not feature in GE14, but a senior BN component leader said people should not read too much into what the prime minister had said on Sabah BN’s KPI for the election.

According to Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) secretary-general Johnny Mositun, what Najib had said in his speech before BN leaders on Thursday was to tell them of their responsibility to deliver a minimum of 22 parliamentary seats and 48 state seats in GE14.

Other Sabah BN component party leaders however were reluctant to comment when contacted, and were more than content to adopt a wait-and-see approach for now.

“I don’t see what the prime minister has said to mean that the 13 new state seats would not be used at all. Otherwise, he would have said it directly that the new seats will not be contested,” Mositun told FMT.

He added that there was always the possibility that the 13 new state seats would be included in GE14.

The Pantai Manis PBS chief has been a proponent of the new seats, particularly in the Papar parliamentary constituency, because of the rising population and the huge area the current assemblymen have to cover.

Under the Papar parliamentary seat, there are only two assemblymen, in Kawang and Pantai Manis.

One of the proposed seats is Limbahau, which is a Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) majority area currently divided between Kawang and Pantai Manis.

The new seats were approved by the Sabah assembly on Aug 9, 2016, and the state constitution amended to increase the number of Sabah assembly seats from 60 to 73.

Last year, Election Commission (EC) chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah said parliamentary approval was all that remained for the proposed electoral boundary redelineation to take effect in Sabah.

In contrast, Sarawak’s 11 new state seats were proposed in January 2015 and took less than a year to be endorsed in Parliament, just in time for Sarawak’s state election in May 2016.

Commenting on the KPI announced by Najib, Mositun said he strongly believed Sabah BN could achieve the numbers under the leadership of Chief Minister Musa Aman.

“We as BN, we all work together as a team and we are focusing on getting the best results in the election,” he said, adding that he was convinced PBS would do better this time around compared to the last election.

In the 13th general election, the party only managed to win seven out of 13 contested state seats and one out of five parliamentary seats.

Other than Limbahau, PBS has identified at least five constituencies out of the 13 new seats where it wants to contest.

Acting president Maximus Ongkili said PBS was confident it could deliver the seats, which are traditionally PBS seats, due to the party’s multiracial membership. -FMT