The announcement of candidates for the upcoming Sabah state election by several major parties today has seen Warisan Plus adopting the strategy of fielding incumbents in its strongholds in the East Coast of Sabah.
Apparently encouraged by its clean sweep of seats in the Semporna parliamentary constituency in the 14th general election (GE14), Warisan has decided to let incumbents defend three seats — Semporna Wanita Warisan head Manis Muka Mohd Darah (Bugaya), Sabah Warisan deputy chief Datuk Jaujan Sambakong (Sulabayan) and Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal (Senallang).
Mohd Shafie is expected to be challenged by Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Norazman Utoh Nain, who is his nephew and vice-head of the Bersatu Semporna division.
In GE14, Senallang saw a straight fight between Mohd Shafie and his cousin, Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Seri Nasir Tun Sakaran, with the former winning.
Contacted by Bernama, Norazman, 45, said despite being a newcomer, he would not be intimidated by Mohd Shafie, who was together with him in Umno before.