Sabah Election Shahelmey Risks Losing Parliamentary Seat If He Defends Tanjung Keramat

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Datuk Shahelmey Yahya. - NSTP FILE PICKOTA KINABALU: Not many would dare make political predictions ahead of the impending state election.
However, naming Datuk Shahelmey Yahya as a possible Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) candidate for Tanjung Keramat is almost a given.
Last-minute decisions, defections, and unexpected alliances may still unfold as the polls draw nearer. But for GRS in Tanjung Keramat, it appears to be a done deal.
The 53-year-old incumbent is the frontrunner for the state seat, one of three constituencies under the urban parliamentary seat of Putatan.
Shahelmey, who is also the Putatan member of Parliament, may automatically be disqualified under the anti-party hopping law if he decides to defend his state seat, having won the parliamentary constituency under the Barisan Nasional (BN) ticket with Umno in 2022.
If anything is to go by, GRS chairman and Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor has openly hinted that Shahelmey is his top choice to defend the seat while Sabah Umno chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin has branded him a traitor.
A civil engineer by profession, Shahelmey said he welcomed Hajiji's consideration of him to defend the seat but stressed that any decision should be made through proper party channels.
"As it is, I will continue with my responsibility to serve the people as the Putatan MP," he said.
To put things into perspective, Shahelmey won Tanjung Keramat in the 2020 state election under BN but later threw his support behind GRS in 2023 during an attempt to oust Hajiji as Chief Minister.
Umno subsequently suspended Shahelmey for six years, but GRS appointed him Deputy Chief Minister III.
He initially served as Community Development and People's Wellbeing Minister after winning Tanjung Keramat and was later appointed Works Minister following the failed coup, replacing Bung.
With Shahelmey out of Umno's line-up, Bung has proposed Putatan chief Jeffrey Nor Mohamed as the party's candidate for the seat.
However, there is talk that Penampang chief Datuk Hasnol Ayub, a seasoned party leader, may also be considered for the role.
The adjacent state seats of Petagas and Tanjung Aru are held by Datuk Awang Ahmad Sah, formerly of Warisan but now with the ruling GRS, and Junz Wong, who also won under Warisan.
In Petagas, Awang Ahmad recently claimed that Hajiji had picked him as the GRS candidate soon after the dissolution of the State Legislative Assembly.
The claim, however, was rebutted by Gagasan Rakyat Petagas chief Mohd Isquzawan Israq Arsit, who stressed that only Hajiji, as party president and GRS chairman, has the mandate to make such an announcement. - NST

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