KOTA KINABALU: Assemblymen who had defected from Warisan claim they did not sign any bonds with the party before they were picked as candidates for the September 2020 state election in Sabah.
“There was no bond,” said Sindumin assemblyman Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob, who left Warisan last year and is now a member of Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat).
He was responding to a request for comments on Warisan’s plan to look into “contracts” signed between the party and its election candidates.
Warisan’s statement came following a Kuala Lumpur High Court order that former PKR vice-president Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin pay RM10mil for breach of bond when she left the party during the 2020 Sheraton Move.
Another assemblyman who quit Warisan, Norazlinah Arif, also said that they did not have any bond agreements with the party.
“I believe Zuraida’s case does not affect us,” she said.
Norazlinah joined Gagasan Rakyat in February this year.
The party led is by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
Eleven out of 23 Warisan assemblymen have defected since the 2020 state election, and all are now backing the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government.
On Saturday, Warisan secretary-general Datuk Loretto Padua said the decision to have a fresh look at the contracts came following last Friday’s court ruling on Zuraida.
He said the party would study the grounds of the judgment before making any decision on assemblymen who defected from Warisan.
In June 2022, Kota Kinabalu High Court judge Justice Wong Siong Tung declared that the combination of undated resignation letters and pledges of loyalty to Warisan prior to the 2020 state election was like an unlawful scheme.
These had been pledges by election candidates that they would remain with the party.
Many parties in Sabah made similar pledges to ensure their assemblymen would not defect later.
But none have proven effective, as such pre-signed letters were not recognised by the state assembly speaker over the years nor by any court.
Sabah has since put in place an anti-hopping law that took effect on June 15.
