Warisan moots review of CM selection process

Warisan has proposed that the recently repealed Article 6(7) of the Sabah Constitution be reviewed to improve the selection process for the chief minister.

At a press conference in Kota Kinabalu today, Warisan president Shafie Apdal said the current practice of using statutory declarations to determine the chief minister can cause political uncertainties.

Article 6(7) states that where a political party wins the majority of seats in an election, the leader of the party - who is also a Sabah state assemblyperson - who is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the assembly shall be elected chief minister.

This law was repealed yesterday by the Sabah legislative assembly when passing a bill designed to discourage lawmakers from defecting.

Voting was split into two phases. All 14 Warisan assemblypersons voted against a clause in the bill to repeal Article 6(7). However, the rest of the bill was passed unanimously.

Shafie (above) proposed a select committee be formed to study improvements to the Article 6(7) because it was important to ensure that the leader and the political party chosen to lead Sabah be given the chief minister's position.

“We don’t want a party that didn’t contest elections in Sabah to become the government. This contradicts the democratic system,” he said, according to Borneo Post.

The present Sabah government led by Hajiji Noor was formed in 2020 by lawmakers primarily from Perikatan Nasional (PN) and BN. However, Hajiji and a group of lawmakers quit PN last December while BN withdrew support for Hajiji to continue as chief minister.

This led to the formation of a new Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition government. During the 2020 elections, GRS was not a formal entity.

On Thursday, Hajiji said Article 6(7) was no longer relevant because since 2018, no political party had obtained a majority to govern the state.

Meanwhile, Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking urged the government to ensure that the new laws will also be applicable to appointed assemblypersons.

“They get the same pay, same pension, same allowances, and hold their position for five years and can be re-appointed in each new term without any limit in the number of terms.

“They should be subjected to the anti-hopping law,” he said. - Mkini