KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 — Controversial Sabahan youth activist Jufazli Shi Ahmad had made it known earlier he intended to go up again Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman in the Sungai Sibuga state seat this GE14 but had to abandon that plan and go to plan B when his proposer and seconder backed out.

The outspoken political activist had in the end submitted his candidacy for the Tanjung Papat state seat, in the adjacent parliament constituency of Sandakan, citing time constraints when he had to find replacements for his proposer and seconder.

“I was sabotaged a day before Nomination Day. Both my proposer and seconder, who were part of my team, went missing and could not be contacted in the morning, so I had to scramble at the last minute and find replacements, but they were in a different state constituency,” said Jufazli.

The founder of the Gerakan Anak Muda Selamatkan Sabah (Youth Movement to Save Sabah) also said that there were other factors that made him contest in Tanjung Papat instead.

“The night before nomination, someone hurled rocks at our house in Sandakan. This is the second time it has happened,” he said, adding that he did not make a police report because “it wouldn’t go anywhere.”

“But the oddest incident was that the nomination centre used was Dewan Sri Libaran instead of the main hall in Sandakan. I did not want to be made a fool of in Musa Aman’s own area,” he said.

The 29-year-old former political science lecturer, who has been very vocal against the chief minister and the BN administration, had crowdfunded to raise money for his nomination.

His outspokenness has seen him arrested for questioning by the police on three occasions between 2016 and 2017 — first for slander, sedition and offences under the Communications and Multimedia Act in November 2016 and then again in May 2017 and once more in September 2017. He has never been charged.

Jufazli, a top scoring student who obtained a 4.0 CGPA in his STPM and a 3.97 CGPA in UKM for his Masters in political science, used to be a lecturer at a private university. He had joined DAP in June last year but said he only lasted two months before leaving the party for reasons he deemed too sensitive to publicise

He had on numerous occasions vowed to take on Musa in GE14.

The Semporna native said that he felt that his chances to win the seat as an independent were as good as any.

“The Chinese voters here are split. If I can get just 20 per cent of the Chinese vote and 30 per cent of the Malay vote, I have a good chance at winning,” he said.

The Tanjung Papat seat, in the Parliamentary constituency of Sandakan, is a mixed Chinese and Muslim Bumiputera seat with the latter just 573 less. It is held by incumbent Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah (BN-Gerakan), who is facing DAP’s Frankie Poon Ming Fung and Jufazli in a three-cornered fight.

“People are responding to me well. I have been making my rounds and 90 per cent of the response has been good.

“The Malay and Muslim Bumiputera want a Malay candidate and are bored of Raymond while some Chinese people don’t want BN or DAP. We have a multi-racial team on my side working together and I think I stand a good chance at getting votes,” he said.