6 extra assemblymen at stake in race for Sabah CM

(FMT) – The Sabah constitution allows the chief minister to nominate six others to become assemblymen, which explains why Musa Aman and Shafie Apdal want to be the first to see the governor and be sworn in.

The race is on between Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) president Shafie Apdal and Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Musa Aman to convince the governor who should be the next Sabah chief minister.

Both men have been barred from entering the palace after yesterday’s election saw the two sides tie at 29 state seats each with another local opposition party, Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR), winning the remaining two seats.

STAR president Jeffrey Kitingan is said to have agreed to align with Warisan, which would give Warisan and Pakatan Harapan (PH) a simple majority to form the government.

However, in Sabah it is not that simple.

In the Sabah state constitution, there is a provision for the chief minister to nominate any six persons as assemblymen, which will mean his party automatically gets an extra six seats in the assembly.

So, once Musa or Shafie is sworn in as chief minister, they can immediately use this provision to increase their party’s number of seats without going to the polls.

For this reason, both men are now desperate to have an audience with the head of state, Juhar Mahiruddin, with Musa making a dash to the palace last night only to be turned away at the gate.

Similarly, Shafie was given the no-go when he arrived with his entourage at 10.13am today.

Sabahans are now waiting to see who the governor will swear in.