BEAUFORT, Jan 4 — The Kimanis parliamentary by-election in Sabah is a straight fight between Datuk Karim Bujang of Parti Warisan Sabah and Datuk Mohamad Alamin of Barisan Nasional (BN).
Karim, 67, is the chief of the Kimanis Division of Warisan while Mohamad Alamin, 48, is the head of the Kimanis Division of UMNO.
Mohamad was the first to hand in his nomination papers at Dewan Datuk Seri Panglima Mohd Dun Banir here, which served as the nomination centre, at 9.07am, followed by Karim at 9.10am.
Among the leaders who accompanied Karim to the nomination centre were Deputy Prime Minister and PKR advisory council chairman Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Warisan president and Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) president Mohamad Sabu and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) deputy president Datuk Seri Mukhriz Tun Mahathir.
Returning officer, Jupari @Jupry Etok, who is also Beaufort district officer, announced the candidates at 10.25 am, following close of nominations at 10 am.
Early voting is on Jan 14 and polling on Jan 18.
Warisan, which helms the state government in Sabah, is allied to Pakatan Harapan (PH). Umno-led BN was defeated by PH in the 14th general election (GE14) in May 2018 after being in power in the country since independence.
The by-election has been necessitated by the Election Court’s nullification on August 16, 2019, of former MP Datuk Seri Anifah Aman’s win in Kimanis in GE14.
Anifah, who won the seat on a BN ticket, quit UMNO in September 2018 to become an independent MP. He held the seat for 20 years after winning it for the first time in 1999.
The court had allowed a petition challenging the election result filed on June 18, 2018, by Karim of Warisan, who was one of the candidates for Kimanis. It had ruled that the presence of additional ballot papers had influenced the results of the polls.
On December 2, 2019, the Federal Court dismissed Anifah’s appeal to set aside the Election Court decision nullifying his victory.
On January 3 this year, the Federal Court dismissed Anifah’s final legal challenge to stop the by-election.
Anifah, who had been a foreign minister in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration, had polled 11,942 votes to win by a 156-vote majority. Karim had secured 11,786 votes and a third candidate, Jaafar Ismail of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, had obtained 1,300 votes.
Karim, from Kampung Brunei, Kimanis, was a four-term assemblyman for Bongawan, one of two state seats under the Kimanis parliamentary constituency, from 1990 to 2013. The other seat is Membakut.
Mohamed won the Bongawan seat in GE13 but lost it to Dr Daud Yusof of Warisan in GE14.
The Kimanis constituency has 29,664 voters, comprising 29,654 regular voters, nine early voters and one overseas absentee voter.
The gender breakdown is 14,800 men and 14,864 women. Bongawan has 16,273 voters and Membakut 13, 391.
— Bernama
