Sabahans Geared Up To Ensure All Parti Gardenia Semalaysia Candidates Lose Their Deposit In State Polls

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PAS mocking has certainly gone full-swing ahead of the Nov 29 Sabah state polls, no thanks to the recent damning “Sabahans can be bought with Gardenia bread” remark by the Islamist party’s Kuala Ketil state assemblyman Major (R) Mansor Zakaria.
Already facing a thorny route to make inroads into the predominant non-Muslim East Malaysia, the depiction of Sabahans as “cheapskates” could serve as the proverbial last nail in the coffin for PAS in Sabah (and probably neighbouring Sarawak).
Detractors are all out rallying Sabahans to ensure that PAS is inflicted with a similar fate that befell Pejuang in the 15th General Election (GE15) – all its candidates (115 for parliamentary and 43 for state seats) lost their deposits, including party founder Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“What is certain is that all PAS candidates in the Sabah state election will lose their deposit money,” predicted one observer on the PRN17 SABAH Facebook page.

Another reminded Sabahans to reject/boycott PAS by ensuring that all its candidates lose their deposits to serve as a lesson.

Madani government backers on the Rakan Nurul Izzah Anwar public group also seized the moment to mock PAS’ head honcho Tan Sri Hadi Awang who is depicted arriving at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport on a baby-stroller-like wheelchair holding a loaf of the Gardenia white bread.

The bitter truth that Sabahans have to swallow is that the Gardenia episode has revealed “how low the perception PAS has towards Sabahans” or in other words, the very fact that PAS only seeks to manipulate Sabahans to expand its power base to East Malaysia.

Bigger picture
All in all, Perikatan Nasional (PN) will contest 42 of the 73 seats in the state polls which attracted a record-breaking 596 candidates, a 33.3% jump from 447 candidates in the previous 2020 election, according to the Election Commission (EC).
Of the 42 candidates, six are from PAS. They are Sabah PAS commissioner Datuk Dr Aliakbar Gulasan (N.16 Karambunai); Dr Afifi Saif (N.23 Petagas); Kasman Karate (N.63 Kunak); Dr Munzier Mahamud (N.67 Balung); Ahmad Dullah (N.71 Tanjung Batu); and Hasan Haris (N.72 Merotai).

PN deputy chairman Datuk Dr Aliakbar Gulasan faces an 11-cornered fight for the N.16 Karambunai state constituency against contenders from Barisan Nasional (BN), Parti Bumi Kenyalang, Parti Kebangsaan Sabah, Parti Gemilang Anak Sabah, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), Parti Damai Sabah, STAR, Warisan, Parti Pertubuhan Perpaduan Rakyat Kebangsaan Sabah dan Parti Impian Sabah.
The Tulid state constituency will have the most candidates contesting at 14 candidates, followed by Bandau, Tamparuli, Inanam, and Kapayan each with 13 candidates, Banggi and Moyong have 12-cornered fights while Bengkoka, Tanjong Kapor, Pintasan, Karambunai, Tanjung Keramat and Balung will have 11 candidates contesting.

The EC has set the polling day for Nov 29 while early voting is on Nov 25. – Focus Malaysia

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