GRS aims to have CM sworn in today, identity unknown

Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) will announce their new chief minister candidate before the swearing process today, according to Sabah Perikatan Nasional chief Hajiji Mohd Noor.

Hajiji had related this to the press at 2am, after five hours of meetings at the Magellan Hotel, Kota Kinabalu.

Only Sabah PN, Star and SAPP leaders were at the meeting while Sabah BN and PBS leaders were not.

However, it is understood that discussions between all the above-mentioned parties or coalitions did take place.

Hajiji sidestepped numerous attempts by reporters to establish whether GRS had come to a consensus who would be the new chief minister.

He refused to confirm anything other than that the goal was to have the new chief minister sworn-in at 11am.

"We will announce tomorrow before going to the palace....We will wait for the palace, I think in the morning," he said.

Hajiji declined to confirm if the new chief minister would be from PN.

"It will be announced tomorrow, let it be a puzzle," he said.

On why Sabah Umno leaders were not physically at the meeting today, Hajiji claimed that some of the new Umno lawmakers are in still in the interiors and are making their way to Kota Kinabalu.

"So we will have to make an announcement only after they arrive," he said.

Rubin Balang, the independent candidate who won the Kemabong state seat, also appeared at the event. Hajiji said Rubin was present because he supported PN.

GRS is an unofficial electoral pact which did not agree on a chief minister candidate going into the elections yesterday.

Although Umno is the single GRS party with the most seats (14), PN as an official coalition has more (17). The other GRS component, PBS, has six seasts.

Shortly after the results were made known, BN chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told Malaysiakini that the chief minister must come from Umno, since it is the single GRS party with the most seats.