KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan is pursuing “breach of contract” cases against 11 of its assemblymen who defected after the September 2020 snap state election, says its president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
For now, he said, the party was in the legal process of pushing for the seats to be declared vacant as the assemblymen had breached the contract to vacate their seats once they defected from the party.
He said the decision to pursue the case was made following a Kuala Lumpur High Court decision that Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin pay RM10mil for breaching an election bond with PKR after she defected from the party in 2020.
Zuraida is appealing the June 24 High Court decision.
“We have studied the judge’s decision on Zuraida’s case. It is similar to our case.
“Their agreement with us (Warisan) was to vacate their seats if they left the party. Even if they say we did not have a bond, this is not necessarily for money. It is about a breach of agreement.
“We feel they should be liable to pay the cost incurred by the party for financing them to be candidates and campaign costs,” he told reporters after meeting with tenants of the Tanjung Aru low-cost flats who are facing eviction by a state agency.
Shafie acknowledged that the state assembly had not accepted the pre-signed letters to resign their seats, so they would pursue the matter in court.
To become election candidates for Warisan at that time, these candidates signed a contract that they would vacate their seats if they defected.
This included signing undated, pre-signed letters for this purpose.
However, the pre-signed letters were not accepted by the state assembly Speaker when the assemblymen later declared that they had no intention to vacate their seats.
Warisan lost 11 of the 23 seats it won in the Sept 26, 2020, election when the representatives defected to parties under Gabungan Rakyat Sabah led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
Sebatik assemblyman Hassan Amir Gani was the first to defect from Warisan on Feb 26, 2021.
In June 2022, Kota Kinabalu High Court judge Justice Wong Siong Tung declared that the undated and unsigned resignation letters were unlawful.
Justice Wong said that an elected representative should be able to act on his own independent judgement and not be legally constrained by the party or the electorate.
In Zuraida’s case, Justice Akhtar Tahir said the bond signed by Zuraida on April 25, 2018, was a valid and binding contract.
