We will take back Penampang, says Upko
KOTA KINABALU: Upko or the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation is all set to win back the Penampang parliamentary seat it lost at the 13th general election.
Acting president Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau said the Barisan Nasional component party’s machinery was in place, confident it could take the seat back from Darell Leiking who beat their president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok in 2013.
Leiking, who was with PKR at that time, had in September 2016 quit the party to join Parti Warisan Sabah.
Also on target is winning back the Moyog state seat, which Upko lost to PKR’s Terence Siambun, and MCA’s Kapayan seat, which was lost to DAP’s Dr Edwin Bosi, Tangau said.
Moyog and Kapayan are under the Penampang parliamentary constituency.
“We have some 51, 000 registered voters in the Penampang constituency, of which more than half are Barisan members,” he said when launching the Penampang election machinery in Kampung Madsiang yesterday.
Meanwhile, Tangau said Bosi, who recently quit DAP to join Parti Anak Negeri, had voiced interest in joining Upko.
“We welcome him but he cannot stipulate terms like contesting the Kapayan seat again because this seat is for MCA,” he said.
Tangau said Bosi would need to bring all his supporters with him if he wished to join Upko.
He said if the people of Penampang chose Barisan, it also meant that they were already choosing their chief minister and prime minister.
If the Opposition won, their prime minister would be a 93-year-old man, Tangau said.
Referring to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, he said “this person” caused havoc in Sabah’s political system and was behind the “mother of all problems” in Sabah, where illegal immigrants were given instant identification cards during his tenure.