KOTA KINABALU: Former Sabah PKR liaison chairman Ahmad Thamrin Jaini has joined in the fray to contest one of the 20 central Supreme Council posts.
He joins six other Sabah PKR leaders, namely Christina Liew, Dr Roland Chia, Datuk James Ghani, Keny Chua, Mustafa Sakmud and Taufik Ruschi in vying for the post in the central leadership.
Ahmad Thamrin, however, is said to have submitted his nomination without the state leadership’s knowledge and therefore seemingly does not have its ‘blessings’.
State PKR secretary Datuk James Ghani confirmed that Thamrin, who was replaced by Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin, is one of the PKR leaders from Sabah who will be contesting the party’s election on May 3 and 4.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, James disclosed that after the close of nomination on April 5 and 6, five Sabah PKR division chiefs have won their respective posts uncontested, including Lajim (Beaufort), Christina (Kota Kinabalu) and Penampang (Darrel Leiking).
The other two divisions are Kimanis and Beaufort, he said, adding that Semporna and Silam divisional chief posts are the most coveted ones as they will see at least a five-cornered fight respectively.
“We have also received 13 complaints/protests against some of those nominated so far and are waiting for more evidence to be submitted to the state Election Committee which will in turn send the information to the central committee for further action,” he said.
James also reminded all the candidates for the state party elections to refrain from defaming their opponents when campaigning or using money politics because it can result in them being automatically disqualified from the election if found guilty of doing so.
“They will also be disqualified if their supporters are unruly during the election,” he warned.
James also said that Sabah, which has more than 92,000 members, second after Selangor, will be the deciding force as to who will lead PKR.
“All the members will vote for the person(s) they want to lead them and we will see the result on May 4,” he said, adding that it is a straight fight for the party president’s post and a six-cornered fight for the deputy president’s post.
“Sixteen people are vying for the four vice president’s posts while 78 are in the fray for the 20 elected Supreme Council member posts,” he said.
He also pointed out that the nomination process last weekend went smoothly and this is because of Lajim’s good leadership.