Warisan Youth chief Azis Jamman described the attack by PAS Youth information chief Nazir Helmi as “extreme, shallow and stiff-necked” when the polls were called following an attempted coup by a Sabah Umno leader.

Umno’s Musa Aman had claimed to have a simple majority to form a new state government, which led to Shafie calling for snap polls.

Nazir had said the surge of Covid-19 cases in Sabah and the country at large could have been avoided if Shafie had not been “greedy” to remain as chief minister, despite losing the confidence of the majority of assemblymen.

But the Sepanggar MP argued that it was due to Musa’s desire for power.

And Musa, he claimed, was backed by Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin.

This he alleged, led to assemblymen being offered inducements to defect.

“And this threatened Sabah’s political stability,” he said in a statement.

The former deputy home minister, claimed the inducement for Sabah assemblymen to jump ship was not just in the form of rewards, but also in the form of threats that action could be taken against them through the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) or the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN).

He claimed this was one of the main reasons why there was a change in the administrations of Johor, Melaka and Kedah.