KOTA KINABALU, Oct 4 — The Sabah State Legislative Assembly is expected to be dissolved next week, likely on Monday, The Star quoted a senior political source as saying.
The English news portal reported that state ministers bid each other farewell after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, and had expected the dissolution to be announced yesterday.
The source said Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor had sought the consent of Yang DiPertua Negeri Tun Musa Aman to dissolve the assembly and pave the way for the 17th state election.
Some say the exit of Sabah STAR and Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) from the ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) may have delayed the announcement.
The senior political source, who wished to remain anonymous, said Hajiji, who leads the GRS-Pakatan Harapan coalition government, wants the elections called quickly as there is legal grey area over when the assembly would be automatically dissolved.
Previously, Sabah Speaker Datuk Kadzim Yahya said the assembly’s five-year term ends November 11, as the state governor opened the “first sitting” of the 16th assembly on November 12, 2020.
However, the report said that after a snap state election on September 26, 2020, a special session was called on October 9 that year to discuss the Covid-19 movement control order, which would make Thursday the last day of the assembly.
Kadzim had clarified then that the October 2020 session was to swear in new assemblymen, not the first day of the sitting, but a lacuna in law seems to have been raised.
The Sabah constitution does not clearly define the first sitting as it states “the Legislative Assembly shall, unless sooner dissolved, continue for five years from the date of its first sitting and shall then stand dissolved”.
It also says “the first sitting of the House in each session shall be held in such place on such day and at such hour as the Yang DiPertua Negeri may by proclamation appoint”.
Hajiji’s office, amid uproar on social media, issued a statement that a press conference on the dissolution would be held at the appropriate time.
In the Sabah assembly, GRS has 42 assemblymen, Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) has 12 (including two suspended), Warisan has 14, Harapan has seven, Parti KDM has two, and PAS has one.
The Sungai Sibuga seat held by Umno is vacant due to the death of its assemblyman, BN’s Mohamad Hamsan Awang Supain.
In the 2020 Sabah snap election, the Hajiji-led Sabah Perikatan Nasional, Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin-led Sabah BN, and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) formed a loose coalition to usurp the Warisan-Harapan state government led by Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
Sabah BN won 14 seats, Perikatan won 17 (Bersatu 11 and Sabah STAR 6), and PBS won seven. Three independents joined the loose coalition known as GRS, giving it 41 seats in the 73-member house. Warisan won 23 seats and its partner Sabah Harapan won nine seats.
GRS was officially registered in early 2022.
But after the November 2020 general election, Hajiji, along with Bersatu assemblymen, left the party and formed Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah after the federal Unity Government took shape.
Bung pulled Sabah BN-Umno’s support from Hajiji’s government in January 2023, and Sabah Harapan went to GRS’ rescue.
