Bung denies Sabah Umno involved in attempted coup leading to state polls
Sabah Umno has denied taking part in the recent attempted political coup which led to the dissolution of the state legislative assembly and snap polls.
In a statement yesterday, Sabah Umno chief Bung Moktar Radin said the party was not involved in efforts to wrest the state from Warisan....
This is despite Musa Aman being a part of Umno, with Bung claiming the move was a pact among various other parties.
Sabah Umno has denied taking part in the recent attempted political coup which led to the dissolution of the state legislative assembly and snap polls.
In a statement yesterday, Sabah Umno chief Bung Moktar Radin (above) said the party was not involved in efforts to wrest the state from Warisan.
The move was a pact among various parties, he was quoted as saying by Free Malaysia Today (FMT).
This is despite former Sabah chief minister Musa Aman, who plotted the attempted coup by obtaining the support of 33 state assemblypersons, being with Umno.
His actions resulted in incumbant chief minister Shafie Apdal pushing for snap polls to thwart Musa (below) after defections from the Warisan government had given the latter a simple majority in the august House.
Sabah MACC was reportedly probing allegations that several state lawmakers were offered money to defect to the other side.
On June 23, Bung admitted to contacting lawmakers from the ruling state government to switch camps.
Elaborating further in yesterday's statement, Bung believed that a fresh state election is the best answer for the political gridlock.
He pledged that Umno will offer new deals in the Sabah polls, which will include development in the state and improvement in quality of life.
“We will leave it to the people to choose the government they truly believe can govern the state," he added.
Meanwhile, China Press quoted Bung as saying that Umno was prepared to contest in all its traditional seats, which it initially won but ultimately lost when its lawmakers defected in the last general election.
"The seats that belong to Umno should be given back to us."
The party will meet tomorrow to discuss preparations for the polls before meeting with its BN allies.
"After Sabah BN arrives at a consensus, then we will discuss with other parties. Sabah Umno insists that those seats originally belonging to Umno, should be conceded to us," he said.
"We will contest under BN's ticket and we aim to reclaim all our traditional seats," Bung added.
Sabah Umno won 17 state seats during the 2018 general election, while Warisan and its allies won 29 seats out of 60 - two short of a simple majority.
At the time, Musa claimed that he had the numbers after recruiting two lawmakers from Star and was thereafter sworn in as the chief minister.
However, days later Warisan claimed 35 assemblypersons on its side after six BN representatives defected, allowing Shafie to helm the state government.
