Sabah government collapses as Barisan Nasional withdraws support for prime minister

Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah government, led by the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition, collapsed after Balisan Nacional (BN) withdrew its support for the prime minister.

The BN’s decision was announced on Friday night (6 January) by United Malay National Organization (UMNO) Secretary General Bun Moktar Radin in Sabah. UMNO is the cornerstone of BN.

Bung Moktar said the decision was made because of a lack of confidence in Prime Minister Hajiji Noor’s leadership, according to Bernama’s report.

He added that the latter violated an agreement between BN and Perikatan Nasional (PN).

He noted that BN and PN have implemented an agreement to form a state government following the 2020 Sabah elections. I left Bersatu.

Bung Moktar claimed that this caused the state government to lose its legitimacy.

He said: “Haziji also threatened us with a cabinet reshuffle without any discussion.

“According to the Sabah Constitution, the prime minister must be chosen from a majority of the political parties.

Bung Moktar added that he would seek a meeting with Sabah’s Sheikh Juhal Mahiruddin to consider the appointment of Hajiji as prime minister.

In the 79-seat state legislature, the GRS has 29 seats, the Warisan has 19 seats, and the BN has 17 seats. Pakatan Harapan (PH) holds seven of her seats.

Before Friday night’s announcement, Hajizi had the support of GRS, BN and PH, as well as other smaller political parties and independents.

He was one of 16 Sabah Bersatu provincial council members who decided to leave the party led by former prime minister and Bersatu chairman Muhyiddin Yassin.

The move followed Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s formation of a unity government at the federal level last year.

The Federal Government of Unity consists of PH, BN, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), GRS, and Warisan.

Local media reported that Warisan leader Shafi Apdal called for a press conference in the afternoon, but the event was canceled hours later, sparking rumors of a change in the state government on Thursday.

On Friday afternoon, Anwar said, The political situation in Sabah was ‘calm’.

“We are not seeing any (new) progress. We have been informed that there are some issues, so we have asked the Prime Minister (Mr Hajiji) to discuss it with (our) friends in Sabah,” said the PH chairman. told the media.