KUKUSAN assemblyman Rina Jainal has left Warisan to join Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah. 

She is the latest Sabah state lawmaker who has left Warisan for other parties.

At a press conference in Kota Kinabalu today, the first-term assemblyman announced her resignation with immediate effect. 

“I chose Harapan (Rakyat) as I believe we can bring more developments to Tawau,” Rina was quoted as saying by The Borneo Post. 

“The party works for the people of Tawau.”

With her departure from Warisan, Rina also relinquished all her posts in the party, including as Kalabakan women’s chief. 

She won the Kukusan seat at the state elections in September 2020 with a mere 10-vote majority, garnering 2,834 votes to defeat Barisan Nasional’s Chaya Sulaiman in a seven-cornered battle. 

Kukusan was one of the 13 new seats added in the last state elections. 

Warisan now has 18 assemblymen – including six nominated assemblymen – in the 79-seat Sabah legislative assembly. 

In October last year, Warisan’s Sindumin assemblyman Yusof Yacob  left the party to become an independent politician who supports the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah government. 

Yusof joined Warisan in 2016, when it was formed by Mohd Shafie Apdal. He is widely tipped to rejoin Umno at a later date. 

Yusof was the second Warisan assemblyman to leave the party, after Sebatik’s Hassan A. Gani Pg Amir exited on February 25. – June 5, 2022.