State election: Warisan not contesting, will support polls at six states - Shafie

KOTA KINABALU - Parti Warisan (Warisan) will not be contesting in the upcoming state elections held in the six states and will only support the candidates who will be contesting in the polls.

Its president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said the matter had been conveyed to the unity government's component party leaders recently.

"I have advised Warisan members not to contest and in the recent unity government meeting, I have already informed them that we would not be asking for a seat even though initially there was efforts to give Warisan seats in Kedah.

"I told them that we will support them, to make sure that there is no need for us to contest although we have an assemblyman and even though we do have the strength at the Parliament level where we had 4,000 votes. Not that we could not contest, but we sincerely wanted to (support)," he said.

He said this during the Tanjung Aru assemblyman's Aidilfitri open house, in Tanjung Aru, last night.

Shafie said the decision included not defending the Teratai state assembly seat held by Bryan Lai Wai Chong in Selangor.

"After talking to Bryan, I talked to the Menteri Besar to convey this suggestion and it was up to the Menteri Besar to decide how we can help," he said.

He added that Warisan did not have its own election machinery in the six states, but they did have supporters who could help candidates who will be contesting soon.