KOTA KINABALU, Nov 22 — Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) chairman Datuk Hajiji Noor said that any promise to support a Barisan Nasional (BN) prime minister was nullified when the party lost and did not qualify to have a prime minister candidate.

Hajiji, who is Sabah chief minister and Sabah Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia chairman, pushed back at Sabah BN chief Datuk Bung Moktar Radin’s accusation that he had "declared war” by supporting Perikatan Nasional (PN) to form the federal government.

"We have no reason to declare war on BN. In the recent election, I myself had gone down to the ground and campaigned for BN candidates in their constituencies,” he said in a statement here.

Hajiji said the agreement between GRS and BN was for GRS to support Umno and BN if they had qualified to have a prime minister candidate and form government.

"But BN lost, and Umno does not qualify to appoint a prime minister, so the agreement becomes irrelevant.

"I also have to emphasise that there was no pre-election agreement with any other party or person including Pakatan Harapan,” said Hajiji.

The chief minister also said that there was no connection between the Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat MP and the two Sabahan independent MPs with GRS.

"They had met with Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on their own accord, and I was no involved with that at all.

"I hope that Umno and BN will continue to work with GRS on the administration of Sabah as before,” he said.

Hajiji’s statement came after scathing comments from Bung last night, who took issue with GRS supporting PN for government.

Bung said that Hajiji had broken the terms of their deal and said there might be repercussions on the state level.

In GE15, GRS and BN had worked on a pact to divide the 25 seats without any overlap. However, various clashes had taken place, but both Bung and Hajiji denied sanctioning the clashes.

GRS ended up winning six seats, and BN, seven.

At the Sabah state assembly, GRS has about 30 seats in the 79 seat state assembly, while BN has 17.