A POTENTIAL three-cornered contest is brewing in Sabah’s interior constituency of Kemabong, as Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional (BN) and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) each lay claim to the seat currently held by GRS’s Datuk Rubin Balang.
Rubin, who won the seat as an Independent in the 2020 state election, later joined Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor’s Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah, a component of GRS.
GRS was the first to confirm its candidate, with Hajiji announcing that Rubin would defend the seat. “With solid machinery and full support from the voters in Kemabong, Datuk Rubin Balang (pic) will win again in this election,” The Star reported Hajiji telling a crowd during an event in the constituency on Friday.
The 62-year-old Rubin first won Kemabong in 1994 under Parti Bersatu Sabah before joining Umno, where he retained the seat for five consecutive terms until 2018. He later contested the Tenom parliamentary seat but was unsuccessful.
Hajiji’s endorsement of Rubin comes amid confirmation by Pakatan Harapan’s Democratic Action Party (DAP) that it is seeking an eighth seat to contest in Sabah’s interior, widely believed to be Kemabong.
Barisan Nasional is also understood to be eyeing the same seat and is expected to announce its candidate today should it decide to enter the race.
The overlapping ambitions of the three government allies have set the stage for complex negotiations. Pakatan will need to engage separately with both GRS and Barisan to avoid a direct clash among partners in the federal unity government.
While Sabah Barisan and GRS remain aligned at the federal level, both coalitions have refused to form an electoral pact in the state, declaring they will contest against each other but not against Pakatan candidates. - November 9, 2025
