Party secretary-general Loretto Padua Jr said Hassan, who left Warisan and pledged support for Gabungan Rakyat Sabah last week, signed the letter and took the oath on his own free will.

He said everyone, including Hassan, knew the reason the snap election took place last year was because of assemblymen defecting from the ruling Warisan-led government which led to it being dissolved.

“Everyone was angry, including Hassan himself, so that is why everyone wanted to prove their loyalty when the oath taking and letter signing were carried out,” he said.

“There was no coercion, there was no such thing as ‘if you don’t sign you will not become a candidate’.

“So why is he now saying he was forced?”

Warisan president Shafie Apdal said yesterday that Hassan made a pledge and signed a document of allegiance to Warisan in front of the party’s lawyers before the state election last year.

A video of Hassan swearing his allegiance was also shown to reporters after a Warisan meeting attended by all its MPs and assemblymen yesterday.

In the video dated Sept 10 last year, Hassan had promised to hand in his resignation as Sebatik assemblyman to the Sabah governor and the state assembly if he switched parties.

Loretto presented Hassan’s resignation letter to the state speaker’s office today.

Following Shafie’s press conference, Hassan contended that he had no choice but to swear allegiance to Warisan last year because he wanted to be an election candidate.

He acknowledged that he had taken the oath of allegiance, as shown in the video clip but claimed it was invalid, saying: “If I did not swear, I would not be nominated.”

Shafie had also initially said the party would take legal action against Hassan, adding that Warisan never forced him to take the pledge which all Warisan candidates did.

Loretto said today that the party would wait for the speaker’s instructions.

“I believe the people in Sabah and throughout Malaysia want to know the outcome … I could be mistaken but this might be the first time anything like this is being done.

“At the same time, the people support our action. We want to prove that we are against party hopping,” he said.