KOTA KINABALU, Nov 2 — Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) vice-president and five-term MP Datuk Ronald Kiandee has yet to know whether he will be contesting this general election (GE15).
The Beluran seat was left out of the candidate lists of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Barisan Nasional (BN) that was read out by Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor and Sabah BN president Datuk Bung Moktar Radin respectively.
Bung, in his speech, read the names of 11 candidates for the federal parliamentary seats before saying, “One more has yet to be decided”.
It is believed that Umno had planned to field Sandakan Municipal Council president Benedict Asmat in the seat.
It had also been speculated that Kiandee, the caretaker agriculture and food industry minister, was on the chopping block as GRS and BN wrestled over the east coast seat for weeks, holding up negotiations.
When speaking to reporters later, Bung said that the seat “was still under negotiation”.
“We will settle it before nomination,” he said.
When asked whether there is a possibility that the two coalitions clash for the seat, he said “I don’t think so.”
Kiandee has held the seat since 1999, then under Umno. He joined other Umno leaders in a mass resignation in December 2018 along with other Umno leaders and served as federal minister with the Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry under both Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
He was also Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman during the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration from 2018 to 2019 and Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat in the BN administration from 2008 to 2018.
In GE14, he won the seat easily over the nearest opponent Japar Zairun from Parti Warisan with a 7,115 vote majority, earning 62 per cent of the votes in the constituency.
Caretaker deputy finance minister Datuk Hafez Yamani Musa, Kudat’s four-term MP Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri, Beaufort’s two-term MP Datuk Azizah Dun and Libaran’s one-term Datuk Zakaria Edris were also dropped.
