Hajiji Officially Becomes Sabah Chief Minister After Power Tussle Between Bersatu And BN
Meanwhile, Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin was sworn in as Sabah Deputy Chief Minister.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 29 Sep 2020, 12:27 PM
Sulaman assemblyman Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor has become the new Sabah Chief Minister (CM) after a swearing-in ceremony held at Sabah State Palace this morning, 29 September
Hajiji, who is the chief of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), was sworn in in front of Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Juhar Mahiruddin at the state palace in Kota Kinabalu.
Present at the palace were Kota Kinabalu High Court Judge Mairin Idang @ Martin, UMNO's Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin, STAR's Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, and PBS' Datuk Joachim Gunsalam, among others.
All attendees at the ceremony were seen wearing face masks and practised physical distancing.
After taking the oath to serve the state in his best capacity, Hajiji has officially become Sabah's 16th Chief Minister, taking over the position left vacant by Warisan's Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal after he dissolved the state assembly on 30 July.
Meanwhile, Bung Moktar, Dr Jeffrey, and Dr Joachim have been chosen as the state's Deputy CMs
The ceremony also saw Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun and Datuk Jahid Jahim sworn in as Sabah's Works Minister and Rural Development Minister respectively.
Hajiji's appointment as Sabah CM went ahead despite Barisan Nasional (BN) president Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi saying it is too costly to give the post to someone from Bersatu
According to New Straits Times, BN holds the largest seat count in Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) with 14 seats, followed by Bersatu with 11 seats, PBS with seven seats, and STAR with six seats.
Zahid said his party had given the CM position in Perak to Bersatu despite the latter having only four seats while UMNO has 25.
"Also, when we came in to form the Federal Government with Bersatu and Gagasan Parti Sarawak, even though Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's party did not have the most MPs, we agreed that he would be the prime minister," Zahid said, reported Malaysiakini.
Although he is disappointed that Bung Moktar was not chosen as Sabah CM, he will respect the unanimous decision made by GRS collectively.
