KOTA KINABALU, Oct 10 — The Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition will convene a meeting soon to finalise seats allocation among its component parties, said Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
He said all GRS component parties were united in facing the 15th General Election (GE15) and have already reached several agreements including using a common symbol.
“GRS election machinery at the state and parliamentary levels are ready to be reactivated and all component parties have also made their respective preparations in the true GRS spirit,” said the GRS chairman.
As for the Sabah state assembly, Hajiji, who is the chief minister, reiterated that the current GRS-BN state government still has three years in its term, and a dissolution would not be necessary.
Earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced the dissolution of Parliament on Monday to pave the way for the GE15.
He also said that all states except for Sabah, Sarawak, Melaka and Johor were advised to also dissolve their respective state assemblies so that their state elections could be held simultaneously.
Sabah Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin said GE14 would return the mandate to Malaysians who could then vote in a stable government.
He said that the dissolution was timely and will end the accusations of being a “backdoor government” after an unprecedented three time change of government within one term.
“The people should be wise in voting for their next government and choose a side that can bring political stability and in turn, economic stability, and carry out the manifesto responsibly,” he said
He reiterated that GRS and BN have agreed on a seat sharing formula that will be announced jointly when the time comes.
“We will combine machineries on the ground before and during the election so we will be stronger,” he said.
There was doubt about whether the two coalitions — Barisan and GRS — would go into GE15 together after butting heads in the 2020 state election.
Bung said that he had met with Hajiji to finalise the seat sharing formula but stopped short of indicating which or how many seats BN would be contesting.
Sabah Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia deputy chairman Datuk Masidi Manjun also said it was about time to end the political turmoil inundating the country.
“Having gone through uneasy and at times rough political period the last two years or so, no one can really predict the future. So might as well try put an end to all these political uncertainties so that a new government can start working to fix the country’s woes. We have wasted enough time on party politics and political intrigues, it’s now time to focus on serving the people and our beloved country,” he said.
