KOTA KINABALU, Oct 28 — In an effort to recoup support for Parti Warisan in the interior district of Tenom following the defection of its former assemblyman, president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said that his friend-turned-foe Datuk Peter Anthony would only serve to split votes in the non-Muslim native majority seat.

He insinuated that Peter, who now heads the government-friendly Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (PKDM), was only contesting the seat to help split votes in favour of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS).

“They are placing candidates in certain seats in an attempt to split votes. You must be very cautious as he and the party are being used by GRS-BN to split our votes.

“Reject PKDM and the others working with them. Focus all your support on Warisan,” he urged voters during the launch of the party’s Tenom election machinery.

Speaking critically of his former vice-president for the first time, Shafie said Peter gained political mileage from Warisan but could not solve the people’s problems despite being the state minister of infrastructure.

“I am friends with Peter, but it is because of Warisan that he became a minister. He did nothing to solve the problems here. Today, people still struggle to get clean water,” he said.

Warisan is hoping to win the support of some non-Muslim native majority seats, after losing Peter, who is one of two non-Muslim native (colloquially referred to as KDM, the acronym for Kadazan Dusun Murut) elected representatives.

Peter is widely believed to be contesting in Tenom, a seat that is much desired by both GRS and BN, although he has yet to make an official announcement.

He has already announced candidates for four other seats: Kota Kinabalu, Kota Marudu, Kimanis and Sepanggar.

In 2018’s GE14, Warisan, working with DAP, won the Tenom seat through DAP candidate Noorita Sual, while Peter won the state seat of Melalap, which falls within the constituency.

Peter maintained the seat in the 2020 state polls under a Warisan ticket two years later, but quit Warisan to form PKDM, which then declared itself GRS-friendly.

The party applied to join the coalition, but its application is still pending at the time of writing.