KANGAR: Pakatan Harapan (PH) is confident Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) has a big chance of winning if the Kimanis Parliamentary by-election was held, according to PH Deputy President Mohamad Sabu.
Mohamad, who is also Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) President, said this was because Sabah’s support for its chief minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, who is also Warisan President is so strong, so it is not impossible for the candidate to win the parliamentary seat.
“I think (Warisan candidate) will win big because of the last 14th General Election (GE14), Datuk Karim Bujang lost narrowly to Datuk Seri Anifah Aman (Barisan Nasional) candidate.
“Based on the PH winning in Sandakan parliamentary by-election (DAP candidate won), they (Warisan) are capable of capturing Kimanis parliamentary seat,” he told reporters after opening the Padang Besar Parti Amanah Negara annual meeting, here today.
On Aug 16, the Sabah Election Court declared Anifah’s win in the Kimanis parliamentary seat in the GE14 as null and void and ordered fresh polls for the seat.
Election Court judge Lee Heng Cheong made the ruling after the court found irregularities with regard to the ballot boxes, which had elements of manipulation.
In the three-cornered fight, Anifah won the Kimanis parliamentary constituency with a 156-vote majority with 11,942 votes against Karim who garnered 11,786 votes and Parti Harapan’s Jaafar Ismail, who received 1,300 votes.
Mohamad, who is also the Defence Minister, in his opening speech, said his ministry and the Home Ministry also took a serious view on racial issues and the emergence of ideologies which could cause conflict among the people.
“All these things could lead to non-traditional war as what is happening in Muslim countries that have been devastated because of the war among themselves.
“When political ideologies are played up, and often blaming others while thinking we are always correct, that can reach to a level of blood being spilled, which the government wants to prevent by taking necessary actions,” he explained. — Bernama
