Kuala Lumpur: Barisan Nasional (BN) will contest all the seats it currently holds in Sabah and move to reclaim traditional constituencies that were previously handed to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) in the last state election (PRN).
BN Deputy Chairman Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said this to Sinar Harian when asked about seat distribution for the Sabah polls, expected later this year after the State Legislative Assembly automatically dissolves on Nov 11.
He stressed that BN remains firm in its stand to return to its traditional seats, which he said were “given away” to a coalition partner during the previous state election.
“We will remain firm in contesting the seats we won, as well as the traditional seats that were previously handed over to Bersatu.
“During the last Sabah polls, many Umno-BN traditional seats were given to Bersatu in the spirit of cooperation.
“But in the end, we were stabbed in the back. We do not want that to happen again,” he reportedly said after officiating the joint delegates’ meeting of the Rembau Umno Women’s, Youth and Puteri wings in Seremban, Saturday.
Mohamad also underlined that Umno-BN must emerge as the dominant party in Sabah after the coming election.
On Gabungan Rakyat Sabah’s (GRS) plan to contest 39 seats, he said this would depend on the outcome of ongoing negotiations.
“We have appointed the Umno secretary-general and the BN secretary-general to negotiate on seat distribution.
“What matters is that BN and Pakatan Harapan (PH) have finalised their cooperation to face the Sabah polls. The rest is still open,” he said, as cited by the national daily.
He added that BN does not want to lock itself too tightly into early discussions, preferring to give space to the joint committee to work out the most effective cooperation and allocation of seats.
“We want the negotiations to be concluded quickly because the election is drawing near.
“The grassroots machinery must understand and be clear about the party’s direction as we head into this election,” he said.
