Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has denied claims that he has a secret pact with Warisan to form the Sabah state government after the Nov 29 polls.
Zahid, who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, said he had never held discussions with Warisan president Shafie Apdal on any such collaboration.
“If there were one, we wouldn’t even be contesting the same seats as Warisan, and vice versa,” he told reporters at a media engagement session today.
Speculation about a BN/Umno-Warisan alliance surfaced ahead of nomination day, with reports claiming Zahid and Shafie had held private meetings to discuss post-election cooperation.
Some leaders from other Sabah-based parties also pointed out that Umno, which is part of BN, is not contesting two state seats in Warisan-held parliamentary constituency Semporna – Senallang and Sulabayan.
Senallang and Sulabayan were previously held by Shafie and Jaujan Sambakong respectively. Both seats fall under the Semporna parliamentary constituency, which is also represented by Shafie.
This fuelled talk that Sabah Umno and Warisan may be working together again, similar to their cooperation during the “Kinabalu Move” in 2023.
However, Zahid did not rule out the possibility of negotiations between parties if the state election results in a hung assembly.
“We do not dismiss the possibility of talks to form a government once the results are out, because no single party or coalition can form the government on its own,” he said.
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