KOTA KINABALU: The Putatan UMNO chief Jeffrey Nor Mohamed has been announced as the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for the Tanjung Keramat seat in the upcoming 17th State Election (PRN-17).
In making the announcement, Sabah UMNO chief Datuk Bung Moktar Radin said that he is confident Jeffrey Nor will be able to provide the best service to the voters in Tanjung Keramat, thereby ensuring that he can reclaim the seat.
According to him, so far only the candidate for the Tanjung Keramat state assembly has been announced earlier, considering that the incumbent, who is also the Member of Parliament for Putatan, Datuk Shahelmey Yahya, was suspended from UMNO membership for six years.
“While in other places, I have not announced yet. We will see how things go; maybe candidates for a few more seats will be announced soon.
“So far, initial discussions regarding the seats Sabah UMNO will contest have been held, but it is not yet time for us to announce them.
“But BN will contest no less than what we contested in the last election, which is 34 seats,” he said at a press conference after officiating Gerak 17 here on Friday night.
Bung Moktar emphasised that, at this moment, Sabah UMNO is not part of the Sabah State Government because all of its Representatives have never been given any allocations, and all positions have been completely monopolised by the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah. (GRS).
“How can one be in the government?They (GRS) just said that Sabah UMNO is currently in government, so it turns out they are deceiving the people.
“Regarding the cooperation between BN and Pakatan Harapan (PH), both Party Presidents have shown understanding; they agreed that the PRN in Sabah is a trial before the concept is used in the upcoming GE,” explained Bung Moktar.
However, he said, Sabah UMNO is still open to and inviting any other local parties that are willing to cooperate in the upcoming PRN-17.