SABAH Umno will be defending all the seats it won in the 14th general election (GE14) even it if has to face Bersatu in GE15, in line with the decision of the party’s central top leaders.

Sabah Umno liaison committee chairman Bung Moktar Radin said it has no choice but to respect the decision of the party’s top leaders to continue defending the seats it won in the last general election.

“In Sabah, we have Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), but when the party decides to contest in the next general election (GE15), Umno has no choice. It has to defend the seats it had contested as well as strengthen the party,” he said in a statement today.

On Friday, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the party will be defending the parliamentary and state seats it won in GE14.

Through a post on his Facebook page, he said the matter was unanimously decided on at an Umno Supreme Council meeting last year.

Yesterday, Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin said the possibility of its clash with Umno in GE15 could be among the political realities it had to accept and Bersatu is ready to face this possibility with its own ways and strategies.

Bung, who is Sabah deputy chief minister, welcomed Muhyiddin’s statement and said Sabah Umno is prepared to face any of the parties, including Bersatu, in GE15.

“We (Umno) have gone through various big challenges. We had won and lost. Hence, this is not a big obstacle for us in facing any party in the next general election,” he said while urging the Umno machinery at all levels to be prepared in facing GE15.

In GE14 in 2018, Umno won seven parliamentary seats in Sabah, namely Kudat, Beaufort, Sipitang, Beluran, Libaran, Kimanis and Kinabatangan.

However, five of its members of Parliament then joined Bersatu, namely Abdul Rahim Bakri (Kudat), Azizah Mohd Dun (Beaufort), Ronald Kiandee (Beluran), Zakaria Mohd Edris (Libaran) and Yamani Hafez Musa (Sipitang).

Currently, Umno holds only two of the 25 parliamentary seats in Sabah, namely Kinabatangan, which is represented by Bung, and Kimanis, by Mohamad Alamin, who is also deputy education minister II. – Bernama, October 3, 2021.