Kota Kinabalu: DAP senator Noorita Sual is running for the Kemabong seat in the Sabah polls as speculated the past week, setting up a clash with senior Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) leader Rubin Balang and a Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate.
Noorita confirmed her candidacy for Pakatan Harapan (PH) in a Facebook post past midnight, with DAP deputy secretary-general Hannah Yeoh to accompany her at the nomination centre later this morning.
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“This is not just a candidate nomination but a call for all children of Kemabong to rise, unite and dare to vote for change,” the former Tenom MP said in the post.
Rubin, vice-president of Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah, was Kemabong assemblyman for five terms, from 1994 to 2018, when he was with BN-Umno.
In the 2018 general election (GE14), BN fielded him in the parliamentary seat of Tenom, where Kemabong is located, and he lost to Noorita by 1,133 votes.
When the snap Sabah election was held in September 2020, Rubin again contested in Kemabong — this time as an independent candidate — and managed to win it with a 1,012-vote majority.
Noorita then failed to defend her Tenom seat in the 2022 general election (GE15), losing to Rubin’s son, Riduan, who contested as an independent candidate and won by 1,108 votes.
BN is also contesting in Kemabong in this state election, having announced its candidate from Umno, Rahmah Jan Sulaiman.
PH previously reached separate electoral pacts with both BN and GRS for this state election.
