KOTA KINABALU, Dec 16 — Banking on its preparedness and experience on the ground, Sabah Umno here will be going all out to take back the Kimanis parliamentary seat in the coming by-election, set for January 18 next year.
Its chairman Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin said that the party had no issues with the dates set by the Election Commission (EC) and would be engaging its election machinery soon.
“No problem for Sabah Umno,” he said through WhatsApp text to Malay Mail when contacted.
When asked whether it had the upper hand, having won the seat in the last general election (GE14), Bung said that Umno was going in at a disadvantage but remained optimistic.
“Umno is working as underdog, anyway Umno have our own strength. We have 200+ branches in Kimanis and chances is still 50/50,” he said.
He said the party would announce the candidate when ready.
Umno’s Datuk Seri Anifah Aman won the seat in GE14 with a narrow margin of 156 votes against Parti Warisan Sabah’s Datuk Karim Bujang.
Karim later filed an election petition alleging non-compliance on the part of the EC among others, which the Election Court agreed with, and declared the results null and void. Anifah subsequently filed an appeal but lost, paving the way for fresh elections in the west coast constituency.
While Umno is speculated to put up Kimanis division chief and former Bongawan assemblyman Datuk Mohamed Alamin as its candidate, Anifah has yet to indicate whether he will seek re-election.
If he does, he will have the option of standing as an independent candidate, having left Umno last year, or join or set up his own party.
Parti Bersatu Sabah president Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili said that it has yet to decide whether it will field a candidate as it is still studying sentiments on the ground.
“There is also the appeal by Anifah, which has yet to be heard, plus we still need to know what are his plans,” he said.
Last week, Anifah filed for a revision of the Federal Court's dismissal of his appeal against the decision to nullify last year’s Kimanis parliamentary election results.
The grounds were that there was “bias or risk of bias” by four of the five-person Federal Court bench that had heard earlier appeals by Karim.
