According to a news portal, Warisan would have 19 seats in the Sabah state assembly should Wong and Chong join. — Bernama pic
KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 – Two independent Sabah state lawmakers who quit DAP last January are expected to join Parti Warisan in Kota Kinabalu today.
They are Sri Tanjong assemblyman Justin Wong and Elopura assemblyman Calvin Chong. Both resigned from the DAP and declared themselves independent assemblymen on January 20.
Wong and Chong are both scheduled to attend an admission ceremony officiated by Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal at its headquarters in the Sabah state capital at 11am today, online news portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) reported late last night, citing unnamed party insiders.
The two state lawmakers were non-committal when FMT contacted them.
Wong, a first-term assemblyman, merely replied “Maybe?” when asked by if it was true he was joining Parti Warisan.
Chong, on the other hand, said he had not decided on which party he was joining. “If I’m joining any party, I will let you know. So far, no one called me,” the two-term state representative was reported to have said.
Wong and Chong had previously cited a loss of direction in the Sabah DAP leadership and internal division within the state chapter for their resignation.
According to the news portal, Warisan would have 19 seats in the Sabah state assembly should Wong and Chong join.
The party that is seeking to expand its influence and took part in the Johor state election earlier this month lost six assemblymen since the last general election in 2018. It won 23 seats in the 2019 Sabah state election.
Of the six assemblymen Warisan lost, five were due to defections, while the sixth seat Bugaya was left vacant after its elected representative Manis Muka Mohd Darah died in November 2020.
DAP currently holds four seats in the Sabah state assembly.
Political analyst Tony Paridi Bagang said Warisan would be the most likely political destination for Wong and Chong and would bode well for the fledgling party that is seeking to become the Sabah government again.
“They are still joining an opposition party and can use this as justification that they are not hopping parties. They can still say they are opposition leaders,” he told FMT.
“Warisan is trying to strengthen their support. In this case, they want to get more Chinese leaders, besides adding on to their numbers. They can also maintain their image as a multi-racial party,” he added.
The relationship between both Warisan and DAP have recently been said to be tense after the former party expanded its membership in the peninsular in an effort to be a national political party.
This has been made worse by Warisan contesting in mainly DAP-contested areas under the Pakatan Harapan coalition in the March 12 Johor state polls.