KOTA KINABALU: Barisan Nasional (BN) will be more careful during seat negotiations with Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) because BN no longer wanted to be “deceived” as before, coalition chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today.
He said BN had learned a lesson from what happened at the Sabah state assembly elections in September 2020.
Zahid said BN had been “cornered” at the state elections. However, he did not elaborate on what he meant by “political cornering”.
“I don’t think we want to face another political situation like this, it doesn’t benefit us and we need to be more careful,” he said at a press conference after closing the Sabah BN convention here.
When asked whether his description of being deceived was related to the appointment of the chief minister after the state elections, Zahid said it was related to “other issues”.
After the state assembly elections, Sabah BN disputed the nomination of a leader from Bersatu as chief minister, claiming that BN had won more seats in the state assembly than Bersatu.
“I don’t think we should be experiencing another political cornering journey, it would not benefit us, we have to be more careful and must hold the upper hand,” he said, Bernama reported.
Zahid said the coalition would allow Sabah BN the freedom to discuss pending issues with GRS, including seat allocations for the general election.
All BN candidates would be decided by the national leadership “but I believe the dynamics of politics in Sabah must be entertained”, he said.
“I think they (Sabah BN) will consult us when the time permits for them to get a decision from national leaders. Definitely Tok Mat (BN deputy chairman Mohamad Hasan) and I will sit down together with Bung Moktar Radin and the Sabah BN leadership,” he said.
Bung, who is Sabah BN chairman, said the coalition would have five options should seat negotiations with GRS fail.
