Karim pledges to transform Kimanis if given mandate
KIMANIS: Parti Warisan Sabah’s (Warisan) candidate for the Kimanis by-election Datuk Karim Bujang aims to transform the parliamentary constituency if given the mandate.
Thanking the Warisan top leadership and the party’s allies namely UPKO and Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sabah for the trust placed in him to re-contest the seat, Karim said that he would not let it go to waste as a victory would mean a brighter future for the people of Kimanis.
“I cannot disappoint the Warisan party leadership and the allied parties, I will prove to them that people in Kimanis are for the government of the day… I think we should be able to deliver the seat handsomely,” he said.
He said this when approached by the media after Warisan president and Sabah chief minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal named him as Warisan’s candidate for the by-election when launching the party’s election machinery at at Dewan Terbuka Membakut near here yesterday.
He added that uppermost in his mind was the welfare of the people and transforming human capital for the benefit of the constituency.
Karim, 67, was Warisan’s candidate for the seat in the 14th general election held in May 2018 but lost by a narrow margin of 156 votes to former foreign minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, who was then with Barisan Nasional (BN).
Later that year, Anifah quit Umno, the backbone of BN, to become an independent MP.
Karim filed an election petition and won in his bid to nullify the result for the seat, thus paving the way for the by-election.
Nomination is on Saturday (Jan 4) and polling on Jan 18.
Karim was also a five-term assemblyman for Bongawan, from 1990 to 2013, and also had held the post of assistant minister, when BN ruled the state before being ousted in GE14.
The Federal Court on Dec 1 last year had upheld the Kota Kinabalu Election Court’s decision to nullify Anifah’s victory in the contest for the seat in GE14.
The Kota Kinabalu Election Court arrived at the decision on Aug 16 last year after finding that there were additional ballots that could have affected the result.
Anifah had polled 11,942 votes in the three cornered fight. The other candidate, from Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, managed to secure 1,300 votes.
Bernama
