KOTA KINABALU – The Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government will remain in power until its five-year term ends in 2025, in view of an impending federal election scheduled in 2023.
GRS chief Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor told reporters today that his loose coalition will continue to be intact in the event that the federal government calls for an election.
“Yes, our mandate is for five years and there is no reason why we should not complete our term,” Hajiji said after attending the one-year anniversary of the GRS government here today.
GRS won the 16th Sabah polls on September 26, 2020 and formed the state government on September 29, alongside allies from Barisan Nasional’s Umno, MCA, PBRS, and MIC, as well as Perikatan Nasional (PN) parties Bersatu, Star, and PAS, and PN-friendly Parti Bersatu Sabah, with the latest addition of Gerakan.
A pact has been signed between the parties in January this year to strengthen the cooperation between parties in GRS.
However, a recent political crisis at the federal level saw Umno declaring that they will end their cooperation with Bersatu, and will go to the polls without them.
The same however cannot be said of Umno in Sabah, as Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin has repeatedly vowed to keep the Bersatu-Umno cooperation in Sabah.
Bung Moktar also previously said that Sabah Umno had already been granted autonomy by the party’s headquarters to chart its own political direction. – The Vibes, September 29, 2021
