In snub to Umno, another former Sabah BN party says flying own colours in state poll

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 — The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will contest on its own ticket for the Sabah state election, with its president saying it would not rejoin the Barisan Nasional coalition as it rejected Umno.

LDP president Datuk Chin Su Pin told Malaysiakini that his party would not work with Umno no matter how they fare in the September 26 state election.

“People are disappointed with the current situation, so we will be the third force. We will provide an alternative for them.

“Even if we win seats, we will not cooperate with Umno,” he was quoted as saying.

The BN coalition disintegrated shortly after the 14th general election, leaving the former ruling coalition with just its founding members of Umno, MCA, and MIC.

While the former Sarawak BN components banded together as Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), their Sabah counterparts have largely remained unaffiliated.

Prior to LDP, another former Sabah BN component, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), also said it will compete on its own ticket despite cooperating with their former allies.

These decisions will fuel expectations of convoluted contests for the state constituencies and allegiances were likely to be blurred.

Chin conceded to this when saying his party planned to run in as many as half of the 73 constituencies.

“There might be up to six or seven parties contesting in one seat. I think all this (cooperation with other parties) can be decided afterwards,” he said further in the report when asked how LDP planned to handle this.

Sabah BN parties have been upset with Umno since the peninsula-based Malay nationalist party ended the informal tradition of rotating the chief minister’s post among component members to provide equal representation among the state’s different communities.

Yesterday, the Election Commission announced the date for the premature state election, with nomination to take place two weeks before that on September 12.

The poll was triggered when Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, now the caretaker chief minister, sought Yang di-Pertua Negri of Sabah Tun Juhar Mahiruddin’s consent to dissolve the state assembly following an attempted takeover by his predecessor, Tan Sri Musa Aman.

Musa secured the defection of enough assemblymen to give him a simple majority in the state assembly but this was never recorded through a vote in the assembly.

He has since filed for judicial review of Juhar’s consent for the dissolution, claiming that the latter was misled.

The High Court will decide if the judiciary may review the decision this Friday.