Most Candidates From This Party Can't Contest In GE14 Because A Member Fled With RM870,000
He was supposed to give the money to the party's candidates on nomination day.
By Jia Vern Tham — 30 Apr 2018, 04:27 PM
United Sabah National Organisation (Usno Baru) lodged a police report against its own member who fled with RM870,000 in party funds on Saturday, 28 April
Malay Mail Online (MMO) reported that the money was supposed to be used as deposits for the party's candidates in the 14th General Election (GE14).
The deposits were meant to be paid on nomination day last Saturday, 28 April.
According to The Star, Usno president Dulli Tiaseh gave all RM870,000 to a member who was responsible for handing the money to candidates on nomination day
The report stated that the member did not show up at the Election Commission (EC) office in Kota Kinabalu on nomination day.
Although the party was allowed until the end of the day to make the payment for all their candidates, Usno was unable to fork out the money.
The party was planning to contest in all 60 state seats and 26 parliamentary seats
MMO reported that due to the incident, only the Usno candidates for Balung and Merotai state seat are able to contest in GE14 because they came up with their own deposits.
According to The Star, Usno Baru members went to the suspect's house in their attempt to get the RM870,000 from him after the incident, but to no avail.
Previously, Daily Express reported in March that Usno Baru hoped to be approved by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to contest in GE14.
Usno was originally founded by the third Chief Minister of Sabah, Tun Mustapha before it was deregistered in 1996 by RoS
The party gained power in 1967, and ruled Sabah until 1975.
According to the Europa World Year Book 2004, Tun Mustapha left the opposition in 1993 to form a coalition with the ruling United Sabah Party (PBS). This led the federal government to seek Usno's deregistration on the basis that it had breached its own statutes.