KOTA KINABALU – Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), a longtime component of Sabah Barisan Nasional, did not have the coalition’s consent to contest against Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) for the Ranau parliamentary seat.
State BN chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin said that the party’s move to go head-on against GRS, an ally of BN in Sabah, goes against the GRS-BN electoral pact for the 15th general election (GE15).
“Our stand is very clear. We do not allow and have not consented to the action of PBRS to contest in any constituency as this will go against our agreement with GRS.
“For that matter, this covers any seat where BN components go head on with GRS,” he told reporters after delivering a talk at Dewan Kampung Warisan in Sepanggar last night.
Bung Moktar however said action cannot be taken against PBRS as the party is contesting under its own logo, and not BN’s.
The Vibes had previously reported PBRS’ decision to contest against the GRS candidate.
BN was originally slated to contest ten seats in Sabah for GE15. Of these, PBRS was allocated one seat, Pensiangan, while the rest were to be fought by Umno.
Umno later was later announced to be also contesting the Beluran seat, taking the total seats the party is vying for BN in Sabah in the upcoming polls to 11.
On nomination day last Saturday, former federal minister Datuk Ewon Ebin, who joined PBRS in January, filed his candidacy, putting him against GRS candidate Jonathan Yassin from Bersatu.
GRS and BN formally entered an electoral pact on November 2, with GRS getting 13 seats and BN 12 seats.
Supplementary BN manifesto for Sabah
Meanwhile, Bung Moktar also said that Sabah BN is preparing a supplementary BN manifesto focusing the needs of the state
He said the supplementary document will include, among others, the call for two deputy prime ministerial posts to be filled by people from Sabah and Sarawak.
“The requests must come from Sabah. This one will be in our additional manifesto, but in principle they (BN) have agreed,” said Bung Moktar of the idea.
He said the manifesto is almost completed and will be presented before polling day.
“There are still one or two things we want to add. The current BN manifesto unveiled on November 7 is already perfect,” he said. – The Vibes, November 9, 2022
