Umno Sabah ready for Sipitang, Kimanis ‘by-elections’ – Bung
KOTA KINABALU: Umno Sabah chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin said his party is ready to face by-elections in Sipitang and Kimanis should the court decide to call for them.
“The court has not made a decision on the matter; however, we (Umno Sabah) are ready for any possibility,” said Bung after he was asked to comment on the Federal Court’s decision to call for an election petition hearing for Sipitang and Kimanis.
In the 14th General Election (GE14), Datuk Seri Anifah Aman and Yamani Hafez Musa won the Kimanis and Sipitang parliamentary seats under the Barisan Nasional (BN) ticket; both have since left the party and are currently independents.
“Although it is still too early to talk about the potential byelections in these two areas, Umno Sabah will still be ready for it. We are also ready to restructure the Umno committee line-ups in each of its 25 divisions in the state, including Sipitang and Kimanis,” Bung, who is also the Umno Supreme Council member said.
Anifah won the Kimanis constituency with a 156-vote majority in the three-cornered fight, securing 11,942 votes against Parti Warisan’s Datuk Karim Bujang and Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah’s Jaafar Ismail, who garnered 11,786 votes and 1,300 votes respectively.
Meanwhile, Yamani won the Sipitang seat with a 852-vote majority, defeating his challengers from Parti Warisan Sabah and Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah.
Separately, Bung said that BN’s recent victory in the Semenyih by-election would ignite the spirit of the party to continue fighting for the people.
Bung, who is also the leader of BN Sabah said that the victory served as a manifestation of the people’s objection towards Pakatan Harapan (PH) as the latter had failed to deliver its promises in its manifesto.
Bung, who was in Semenyih for two weeks to support his party, said that the people there were clearly unsatisfied with the performance of PH.
“This victory will bring about a paradigm shift for BN to rise up against PH,” he added.