KOTA KINABALU: The Pakatan Harapan presidential council intervention into the now-disputed election of the new Sabah Pakatan leadership last month is within the coalition's constitution, says Datuk Mustapha Sakmud.
The Sabah PKR chairman said the presidential council's role was to intervene when local Pakatan leaders were unable to resolve issues among themselves at the state level.
Sabah PKR is disputing the results of the Sabah Pakatan election that saw Upko president Datuk Ewon Benedick taking over as state chairman from Datuk Seri Christina Liew, who is Api Api PKR division chairman.
Ewon, who is also Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister, secured 15 votes while Liew secured nine votes after secret ballots were cast by all 24 representatives from PKR, DAP, Upko and Amanah.
The results and new leadership were initially accepted, then disputed by Sabah PKR, who felt that the party should lead the state coalition as Upko was a relatively new member of Pakatan.
Mustapha said that the move to dispute the Sabah Pakatan election result did not go against democratic practices as they saw a need for intervention in the interest of unity of the state coalition.
He said that the presidential council, which includes Ewon, will make a decision for Sabah Pakatan but could not say when they will meet.
"The council will deliberate on the matter, Ewon will have the opportunity to present his views during the discussion," Mustapha told reporters at a press conference at the state PKR office here Sunday (Jan 12).
"The presidential council's role is not to dictate to Sabah Pakatan but to intervene when local leaders are unable to resolve the matter themselves.
"This is in line with the Pakatan constitution," Mustapha said, adding that Sabah Pakatan had submitted a report over the issue to the national secretariat.
Mustapha, however, did not dispute the technicalities of how the state Pakatan election was carried out.
Mustapha said that there were other factors including policies and differing views that needed to be considered in setting the leadership for the state Pakatan.
