Anifah, who is vying for the Bongawan seat, said PCS’ rivals were highlighting his kinship with Musa in their effort to sway voters away from supporting his party.

“But voters are clear about the difference between me and my brother, politically,” he claimed.

He told FMT he joined PCS and subsequently took leadership of it because of his belief that only a local party could fight for the rights of Sabahans.

He said Sabahans no longer wanted their future to be decided and influenced by others and added that his party wasn’t serving any “political master” from Peninsular Malaysia.

“The reporting line of PCS stops in Kota Kinabalu and travels no further,” he said.

Musa is a member of Umno. He is not a candidate in the Sept 26 polls, but has been campaigning for Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, which is made up of Perikatan Nasional (PN), Barisan Nasional (BN) and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).

Anifah said Sabahans looked at Umno and BN as parties from the peninsula. “They claim to have autonomy, but people no longer believe there won’t be interference from Malaya” if BN were to return to power.

He said he would acknowledge that his brother “did a lot for the people of Sabah” when he was chief minister, but added that this did not mean their political views were the same.

He described PCS as a party of “heroes” fighting to win the election so they could usher in changes and said this gave it a good chance against PN and Warisan.

Noting that Warisan worked with PKR and DAP, he said: “Sabahans clearly want a local Sabah party to form the next state government.”

He described PCS’ election manifesto as “extensive” and pointed out it was contesting for all 73 seats in the polls.

He said most of the party’s candidates were professionals.

Click here for the latest on the Sabah polls