KOTA KINABALU, July 16 — Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) is going ahead with its plan to take legal action against 11 assemblymen who defected the party.

Its president, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, said yesterday that the first breach of contract case against Sebatik assemblyman Hassan Amir Gani, is still in the appeals stage and he has instructed the party’s lawyer to bring the other cases to court.

Hassan was the first to defect from Warisan on February 26, 2021.

“We are in the midst of pushing for their seats to be vacated as they have breached their contract which stated that they must vacate their seats if they defected from Warisan. A bond is not always about money, it is about a breach of contract,” said Shafie.

He explained that the party felt that it should be liable for incurred costs through funding the assemblymen during election campaigns and paying for their deposits, among others.

Shafie said the party’s decision to pursue with the legal action was inspired by the case of Datuk Zuraida Kamarudin who was told by the court to pay RM10 million for breaching an election bond after she left the People’s Justice Party (PKR) in 2020.

“We have studied the Zuraida case, which is also a breach of contract case, and it is quite similar to ours. If it can happen to them, then why not to us?” he said after meeting residents of the Tanjung Aru low-cost flats who will be evicted by the end of this month.

The Warisan assemblymen had signed contracts for their candidacy which included undated but pre-signed letters to vacate their seats if they leave Warisan to jump to another party, but the State Speaker had rejected the letters after they informed him that they had no intentions to vacate their seats.

The 11 Warisan defectors are Hassan A. Gani Pg Amir (Sebatik), Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob (Sindumin), Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi (Segama), Datuk Peter Anthony (Melalap), Datuk Juil Nuatim (Limbahau), Rina Jainal (Kukusan), Datuk Awang Ahmad Sah Sahari (Putatan), Norazlinah Arif (Kunak), Mohammad Mohamarin (Banggi), Ben Chong (Tanjung Kapor) and George Hiew (Karamunting).

On June 23 last year, the Kota Kinabalu High Court judge Justice Wong Siong Tung had rejected Warisan’s application to order the Sebatik assemblyman to vacate his seat on the grounds that the resignation letters were undated and pre-signed, and he declared them unlawful.

Justice Wong in passing his judgement said an elected representative should be able to act according to their own judgement and should not be legally binded by their party or electorate, and depriving their freedom is contrary to public policy and unlawful.

Warisan won 23 seats in the 2020 state election. Eleven of the assemblymen later defected to parties under Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor. — Borneo Post