KOTA KINABALU: Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) needs to decide whether to contest solo or form a political alliance with others to face the 17th Sabah Election.
The Chairman of the State Leadership Council of the People’s Justice Party (PKR), Datuk Mustapha Sakmud, said that the Sabah Pakatan Harapan maintains its relationship with GRS.
He said it is now up to them to decide whether they will contest alone or in alignment with the Pakatan-Barisan Nasional (PH-BN) coalition.
“Until now, there have been unofficial discussions with GRS.
“They are open to collaborating with us, but no official decision has been made for now,” he said.
He said this to reporters after launching the PKR Sabah election machinery here on Saturday.
Mustapha, the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, described the meeting between PKR President Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Noor in Tawau last week as “friendly”.
“Discussions with BN Sabah have already been conducted, especially to avoid overlapping seat contests.
“Regarding seat allocation, the coalition is expected to seek a ‘reasonable number’, and maintaining incumbent seats will be a priority,” Mustapha explained.
According to him, at this time, PKR Sabah holds two State Assembly seats (DUN), namely Api-Api held by the Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Environment Datuk Seri Christina Liew, and Inanam held by Datuk Peto Galim.
“We also want to ensure that our cooperation with Barisan Nasional is respected.
“So there needs to be a clear and fair distribution, especially for the sake of maintaining a unity government at the federal level,” he said.
Mustapha said that the focus of the Sabah Coalition is still on ensuring political stability and development in the state.
“As long as we can unite the people and support the federal government’s agenda, we are open to cooperation – but the conditions must be clear.
“So far, we confirm that there have been no discussions with the Warisan Party regarding the formation of an election coalition,” said Mustapha.
Also present were PKR Vice President Nurul Izzah Anwar and Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari.
