Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) deputy president Ellron Alfred Angin and three other assemblymen have stated their support for Gabungan Rakyat Sabah in the upcoming state election, says GRS chairman Hajiji Noor.
This comes after the four STAR assemblymen broke ranks with their party president, Jeffrey Kitingan, who led the party out of GRS last week, by attending Hajiji’s announcement of the state assembly’s dissolution today.
Asked by reporters about the presence of the four, Hajiji said: “They have already told me that they support GRS.”
Ellron, the state youth and sports minister, is a four-term assemblyman for Sook. It is not immediately clear who the other three STAR assemblymen are.
The six STAR assemblymen are Ellron, Kitingan (Tambunan), Abidin Madingkir (Paginatan), Robert Tawik (Bingkor), Annuar Ayub (Liawan) and Flovia Ng (Tulid).
Abidin, Tawik and Ng are assistant ministers in the state government.
At a press conference, Hajiji said STAR and the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) had their GRS memberships automatically terminated after insisting that their parties will contest under their own banners in the 17th state election.
He reiterated it was the GRS presidential council that agreed all coalition components are to contest under the GRS banner at the polls.
Hajiji said this only applied to GRS components and not Pakatan Harapan, with whom the ruling state coalition has forged an electoral pact.
With GRS possibly clashing with STAR and SAPP candidates, Hajiji expressed confidence the coalition would be able to take them on.
Asked if there was a possibility of GRS working with STAR and SAPP again after the state election, he said: “That does not arise.”
