FORMER federal cabinet minister Salleh Said Keruak is being fielded by Sabah Umno in the state elections, fuelling speculation that he is one of the party’s chief minister candidates.

Meanwhile, Sabah Umno’s last chief minister, Musa Aman, did not make it into the party’s list of 31 candidates announced at a press conference in Kota Kinabalu today.

Also contesting a state seat is Sabah Umno chairman Bung Moktar Radin, another candidate for the chief minister’s post if the party and the coalition it leads wins a majority of the 73 seats up for grabs.

Sabah Umno leads the Sabah Barisan Nasional coalition, which includes Sabah MCA and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah.

Bung announced that MCA and PBRS will make their own separate announcements of their candidates.

Sabah BN will be heading into the state polls along with ally Perikatan Nasional, with the latter announcing its list of candidates separately.

The two coalitions are in a loosely formed pact to campaign against Warisan-Plus, made up of Parti Warisan Sabah, PKR, DAP and Upko. 

In a press conference today, Bung announced that Salleh, who was the Sabah chief minister under a rotation system in the 1990s, will be contesting the Usulkan state seat in the Kota Belud parliamentary constituency which he formerly represented. 

Salleh was the multimedia and communications minister during the Najib Razak administration  from 2013 to 2018.

He ran for election on the BN ticket in the Kota Belud seat in the 2018 general election but lost to Warisan’s Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis.

Salleh subsequently joined PKR but left around the same time the Pakatan Harapan coalition was ousted by PN in late February.

Bung today said BN was fielding Salleh as a “direct candidate”. 

Bung, meanwhile, will contest the Lamag seat in the Kinabatangan parliament constituency which he has represented for the last four terms.

Ex-CM Musa did not ask to be fielded as a candidate nor did BN offer him candidacy, Bung said.

“I wanted to ensure that 85% of the candidates are new faces but we have managed to get 95% new faces this time.” 

In a speech at a Sabah BN-PN event before the press conference, Bung urged all parties to accept the leaders’ candidate choices.

“If we want to win, we must show that our hearts are together and work together. This is our second chance to take over Sabah. Let’s not waste it because it will be even harder the next time.”  – September 10, 2020.