Poon (seated, centre) with the invited guests and participants of the Research on Mental Health Problems and its Preventive Measure seminar.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah DAP acting chairman Datuk Frankie Poon Ming Fung is confident that the state’s ruling Warisan-Pakatan Harapan coalition will win the Kimanis by-election
“We are certain that we will win; the only question is how we will win,” said Poon.
He said he would be calling for a party meeting this coming Monday to discuss DAP’s preparation for the Kimanis by-election.
“We (DAP) want to help with the campaign and whatever that is required of us as a component party to the State Government.
“We will certainly mobilise our grassroots and our agents to help in this particular by-election – to ensure that we will not only win – but we will win big as well,” added Poon, who is also the State Health and People’s Wellbeing Minister.
He said that Sabah is ‘totally different’ from West Malaysia as the current Sabah Government is very organised and it is concerned about the well-being of its citizens.
He assured that DAP would support any candidate chosen to fight for the Kimanis seat – be it from Warisan or Pakatan Harapan.
“Sabah is quite unique. In Sabah, we have the Warisan-Pakatan Harapan led government; and of course we (DAP) are part of Pakatan Harapan. We are working together,” he told reporters when met at the closing ceremony of the Research on Mental Health Problems and its Preventive Measure seminar at the Sabah Theological Seminary here, yesterday.
“We need the people’s support to actually allow us to continue with our policies in order to help the people. We as the government cannot help the people if the people don’t want to help us.
“We certainly want to help them and to put in as much work as possible with whatever limited resources that we have to render whatever assistance that we can to the people,” added Poon.
Last Monday, the Federal Court upheld the Election Court’s ruling to nullify Datuk Seri Anifah Aman’s victory in the Kimanis parliamentary seat in GE14, thus paving the way for a by-election in the constituency.
The election court had agreed with the petitioner, Warisan’s Datuk Karim Bujang, that there was misconduct on the part of the Election Commission in handling Forms 13 and 14 which affected some 341 ballots.
However, Anifah, who was former foreign minister, was cleared of his corruption or bribery allegations.
In the 14th General Elections (GE14), BN’s Anifah won the Kimanis seat with a 156-vote majority, securing 11,942 votes against Karim’s 11,786 votes. Another candidate, Jaafar Imsail of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah garnered 1,300 votes.
Earlier in his speech, Poon said that he was very concerned about the high rate of mental health problems affecting the people of Sabah.
“Based on the National Health and Morbidity Survey released in 2015, mental health issues affect one in every three individuals.
“Such alarming figures if not managed appropriately will result in serious socio-economic impact not just on the individuals but also to the family and community,” he said.