Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) chairman Hajiji Noor has expressed no objections to PKR fielding two former GRS figures as candidates in the upcoming November 29 state election.
The Sabah chief minister described it as the democratic right of George Hiew and Jamawi Jaafar—both previously from his Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah—to join other parties and run in the polls.
“They chose to contest on a PKR ticket and it just so happened that PKR is a partner of ours in the government,” Hajiji said in a statement.
“For me, there’s no problem. That’s Sabah’s political dynamics. Both of them are PKR candidates and no longer represent Gagasan Rakyat.”
He emphasised that the party had already released them. “What else can be done? That’s their right and we respect it. We can’t stop them—this is democracy,” the Gagasan Rakyat president added.
Hajiji confirmed GRS would support Hiew and Jamawi due to the coalition’s electoral pact with Pakatan Harapan (PH).
PKR’s Candidate Lineup Includes Familiar Faces
PKR announced 10 candidates yesterday for the 17th Sabah state election, among them Yamani Hafez Musa, son of Sabah governor Musa Aman.
The party also revealed Hiew’s bid for the Karamunting seat and Jamawi’s for Melalap.
Hiew, a two-term assemblyman, was previously with Warisan before joining Gagasan Rakyat in 2023. He had been part of DAP prior to Warisan in 2016.
Jamawi represented Kemabong from 2018 to 2020 under Umno. In the 2020 state polls, Umno fielded him in Melalap, where he lost to Peter Anthony by 1719 votes.
Two years later, in the general election, he ran for the Tenom parliamentary seat but fell to independent Riduan Rubin by 1108 votes. He subsequently left Umno to join Gagasan Rakyat.
As Sabah gears up for the election, such cross-party moves highlight the fluid nature of local politics, where alliances shift but mutual respect remains key.
