He made the announcement at a special press conference with PBM president Larry Sng here.
The former tourism, arts and culture minister said he made the decision to join PBM because he could relate to the party’s struggle for the rights and autonomy of Borneo, as enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
“In this unprecedented political situation, I think uniting the powers of the people from the two Borneo regions, namely Sabah and Sarawak, is the solution to the problem of political stability and can certainly guarantee the well-being of Malaysians, especially in the state of Sabah.
“PBM is a Borneo-born party that managed to expand its influence to the peninsula. This can be seen through the participation of its MPs and assemblymen there,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mohamaddin said he had not decided whether to defend the Lahad Datu seat that he won in the last general election (GE14).
“If I do contest, it will definitely be on the PBM ticket. However, I will leave it to the party leadership to decide if I am the party’s candidate for Lahad Datu in GE15,” he said.
Earlier, Sng announced that Mohamaddin, who is also the assemblyman for Segama, would be appointed as PBM’s pro tem chief for Sabah.
Mohamaddin won his parliamentary and state seats as a member of Sabah-based Warisan in the 2018 general election (GE14) and the 2020 state polls, respectively.
However, last October, he quit Warisan and joined Bersatu.
About seven months after joining Bersatu, Mohamaddin once again changed his political direction when he left the party and became an independent representative who supported the government.
With this move, the number of PBM representatives in the Dewan Rakyat has increased to four. Its other MPs are Sng (Julau), Zuraida Kamaruddin (Ampang) and Steven Choong (Tebrau).
Zuraida is also the president-designate of the party.
The party, which has applied to join Barisan Nasional, also has five assemblymen. Three are from Perak – Leong Cheok Keng (Malim Nawar), A Sivasubramaniam (Buntong) and Paul Yong (Tronoh) – and two are from Selangor – Haniza Talha (Lembah Jaya), Daroyah Alwi (Sementa).
Previously, Sng said the party supports Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s leadership and will defend all the seats held by its incumbents.