BEAUFORT, Jan 4 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) is committed to ensuring Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) candidate, Datuk Karim Bujang wins the Kimanis parliamentary by-election on January 18.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also PH president, said the coalition will work hard to ensure Warisan’s success in the contest.

Warisan is PH’s political ally in Sabah along with another local party, United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko).

“This (Kimanis by-election) is a straight fight between Warisan and BN (Barisan Nasional). Usually in Sabah, there would be a number of Independent candidates but this time it is different as there are none.

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“We will help ensure Karim’s victory, as a Warisan candidate is also considered a PH candidate,” she told reporters after a visit to the Membakut Welfare Department, near here, today.

Earlier, Dr Wan Azizah was among several senior PH leaders, along with Warisan President Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal who accompanied Karim to the Dewan Datuk Seri Panglima Hj Mohd Dun Banir nomination centre.

The Kimanis by-election will see a straight fight between Karim, the Kimanis Warisan division head and BN’s Datuk Mohamad Alamin, who is also Kimanis Umno division chief.  ​​​

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Meanwhile, Dr Wan Azizah, who is also PKR Advisory Council chairman, said the incident-free nomination process today was reflective of the supporters’ maturity.

Early voting is on January 14 and polling on January 18.

The by-election has been necessitated by the Election Court’s nullification on August 16, 2019, of former MP Datuk Seri Anifah Aman’s win in Kimanis in the 14th General Election in May 2018.

The court had allowed a petition challenging the election result filed on June 18, 2018, by Karim, who was one of the candidates for Kimanis.

It had ruled that the presence of additional ballot papers had influenced the results of the polls.

On December 2, 2019, the Federal Court dismissed Anifah’s appeal to set aside the Election Court decision nullifying his victory.

Yesterday, the Federal Court dismissed Anifah’s final legal challenge to stop the by-election. — Bernama