KOTA KINABALU, Oct 31 — PKR will contest 10 out of the 25 parliamentary seats in Sabah, more than any of its partners in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.
It is retaining both its incumbents — Datuk Christina Liew in the Tawau seat and Awang Husaini Sahari in the Putatan seat.
Other notable candidates are PKR Sabah chief Datuk Sangkar Rasam for the Pensiangan seat, a stronghold for Datuk Arthur Kurup’s Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), who is very likely to defend the seat, and Apirin Jahalan Taufik Sham, who will try to wrangle the Ranau seat back from incumbent Datuk Jonathan Yasin, who won the seat on a PKR ticket in GE14 and later defected to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia. He was later appointed deputy home minister II under PN.
The other candidates are Madely Modily Bangali in the Kota Belud seat to take on Parti Warisan’s incumbent Isnarraisah Munirah Majilis and Umno, who will be one of two formidable opponents — former chief minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak or former federal minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan.
Arastam Pandorog will be contesting the Semporna seat where he is most likely face Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal.
Noraini Abdul Ghapur, a former Umno division chief and daughter of former Kalabakan MP Datuk Abdul Ghapur Salleh, will be contesting the Kalabakan seat. She and Liew are the only two women candidates for PKR in the state.
Former party secretary Mustapha Sakmud will take on Warisan’s Datuk Azis Jamman in Sepanggar, while Dikin Musah will contest in Beaufort and Thonny Chee will contest in Kudat.
In the last general election, PKR, under Pakatan Harapan was working with Warisan to topple the Barisan Nasional government.
PKR had then contested six Parliamentary seats — Ranau, Pensiangan, Tuaran, Tawau, Putatan and Beaufort and won three.
Without Warisan, they have an increased share of seats in the PH coalition. DAP will contest seven seats, Upko will contest five, Muda will contest one — leaving two more unnamed — Sipitang and Kinabatangan, likely saved for Amanah.
PKR is likely to contest Labuan.
