Penampang Umno chief John Ambrose said BN’s district-level leaders had gone to the ground over the last five years to engage with people and to help solve their problems, especially in villages.
“This government has shown it is a sincere government that gives opportunities to Sabahans,” he said.
“For example, Prime Minister Najib Razak appointed six ministers from Sabah, something previous prime ministers had never done,” he said.
He said Sabah had benefitted little when Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the prime minister for 22 years till 2003.
On the possibility of an electoral pact between Parti Warisan Sabah and Pakatan Harapan (PH) affecting Penampang, Ambrose said there would still be other opposition parties contesting in the constituency.
He said BN would stand to benefit if that happened.
“Gabungan Sabah (an alliance of local opposition parties) will put their candidate and so will the Parti Anak Negeri and Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS). This means it is going to be a four-cornered or five-cornered fight,” he told FMT.
He said he was confident because opposition leaders like Warisan president Shafie Apdal himself had expressed concern about multi-cornered contests.
Ambrose added that as a BN representative he was warmly welcomed by people when he visited villages in the constituency, adding that they openly engaged with him.
“At each event I organise I tell the people to vote for BN. I hope after five years, Penampang folks will vote for BN again,” he said.
Voters in Penampang, a suburban area about 8.5 km from here, voted out the incumbent BN MP Bernard Dompok in favour of PKR’s Darell Leiking in the previous election in May 2013.
Dompok, who was president of United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko), managed only 12,382 votes while Leiking garnered 22,598 votes or 62.6% of the total tally.
Leiking however left PKR for Parti Warisan Sabah in 2016.
Ambrose said in order to retake Penampang, it was crucial for BN to look for a likeable and winnable candidate who was preferably young.
He said the candidate needed to be named early as there were many who wanted to be BN’s choice to run there.
“If the candidate is named early, there will be a calming period for those who aspired to be candidates but were not chosen,” he said.
Ambrose said he would discuss with Upko acting president Madius Tangau and chief minister and state Umno chief Musa Aman to express his views on the matter.
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