TUARAN, Aug 22 -- The mission of Sabah Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and its allies in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Barisan Nasional (BN) to take over the state government in the upcoming state election (PRN) comes with great responsibility, said its state chief Datuk Hajiji Noor.

He said that among the big tasks of Bersatu and its allies, in the event that they succeed in taking over the state government in PRN on Sept 26, is to improve the living standards of the people and the state gross domestic product (GDP).

He said the state government, led by the Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan), must be defeated because after more than two years under its rule, the people's economic situation and their administration have been disappointing.

“(Warisan) has no clear direction and there is no effort to improve the living standards of the people other than taking credit for projects which are already implemented and planned by the previous government.

“Based on the statistics, Sabah’s GDP growth declined sharply in 2018 and 2019. Before Warisan took over the state government, GDP was at 8.5 per cent but after they administered the state it fell to 0.5 per cent,” he said when officiating the Tuaran Bersatu division meeting here, today.

Hajiji, who is also the incumbent Sulaman assemblyman, said that this meant that not many economic activities were implemented by the Warisan government to improve the living standards of the people.

“(Therefore) our mission is to take over the Sabah government. ‘Insya Allah’ (God willing), we will succeed together with our PN component partners such as Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) and UMNO,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hajiji said Sabah Bersatu is to hold a meeting with leaders of allied parties next week. Among the matters to be discussed is the party’s intention to contest in 40 seats.

“There are many things we need to discuss in the meeting… what we want is a win-win situation. We need to make sure that we will win in seats where we place our candidates and there should be no overlapping seat disputes.

“Regarding Bersatu’s relationship with UMNO in Sabah, we can work well together,” he said.

The Election Commission has set the Sabah PRN, involving about 1.12 million registered voters, to be held on Sept 26, with Sept 12 as nomination day and early voting on Sept 22.

-- BERNAMA