Sabah State Election: DAP To Defend All Six Seats - Loke

IPOH, Oct 5 (Bernama) -- DAP will defend all six seats it previously won in the upcoming Sabah state election.

DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook said the party will also contest one or two additional seats in the election, as previously reported when DAP has identified at least two state seats in the interior areas that could potentially be contested by the party's candidates.

"For DAP in Sabah, we don't have many, we have incumbent seats, only six seats that we won in the last state election.

"This time we will contest to defend all six seats plus one or two more seats that we have negotiated and we have discussed to ensure a joint victory," he said when opening the 23rd Perak DAP State Annual Convention here today.

In the 16th Sabah election, DAP contested seven seats and won six seats, namely Luyang, Likas, Kapayan, Sri Tanjong, Elopura, Tanjong Papat.

However, two of his former elected representatives from Elopura and Sri Tanjong joined Parti Warisan in 2022.

Meanwhile, when met by reporters and asked if DAP would tighten its candidate selection following the party's previous betrayal, Loke said the party was not worried but confident in its replacement leaders in Sabah.

"Indeed, in the party we have a clause in our party constitution on someone who betrays the party after winning on the strength of the party. If he jumps to another party then we can say that he is disqualified as a party member.

"When disqualified as a party member in any state or Parliament level, they will lose their seats under the Anti-Party Hopping Law, so a by-election must be held. In the state of Sabah there is also such an act," he said.

At the same time, Loke said incumbency would be the main basis for negotiations between Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) to face the Sabah state election after this and was confident that the formula would strengthen and empower cooperation between the two party coalitions for the long term.

In addition, DAP deputy chairman who is also Perak DAP chairman Nga Kor Ming in his speech said he was informed by Perak UMNO treasurer Datuk Sham Mat Sahat that the Perak UMNO liaison committee unanimously reached a consensus that BN would work with PH in the upcoming GE16 (16th General Election).

"We hope that when BN joins forces with PH, we will not only be able to govern Perak, but will also win a two-thirds majority in the coming term," he said.

-- BERNAMA