Sabah BN offers to contest less

KINABATANGAN: Sabah Barisan Nasional has expressed its readiness to reduce the number of parliamentary seats it will contest at the next general election so that there will be more seats available for other parties within the ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah.

Sabah BN chairman Bung Moktar Radin (pic) said the move was to ensure victory for the current government, Bernama reported.

He said Sabah BN had allocated 14 seats for Umno to contest in the 2018 general election, with 10 seats allocated to its Sabah partners PBS and Upko. “But (now) we are ready to negotiate, we want to win because it is not about how many seats will be contested but it is about how many seats we will win,” he said.

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He estimated that Umno would contest between 10 and 12 seats.

There are 25 parliamentary seats in Sabah. BN won 10, Warisan 8, PKR and DAP 3 each, and Sabah STAR 1.

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Bung Moktar, who is also Sabah Umno chairman and MP for Kinabatangan, said this to reporters after officiating the Kinabatangan division Umno delegates meeting here.

He said the negotiation process would be continued and BN would defend the GRS coalition formed with Perikatan Nasional and Parti Bersatu Sabah.

BN would also ensure victory to candidates fielded by the coalition, he said.