The Malaysian Insight

THE cabinet has been advised to let the Bugaya by-election in Sabah proceed, Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said today.

“I have informed the cabinet about the Bugaya issue last week. The by-election should go on,” the law and parliament minister told Dewan Rakyat during his winding-up speech on the repeal of the emergency ordinances today.

Wan Junaidi was responding to Ahmad Hassan’s (Papar-Warisan) question on the status of the Bugaya by-election now that the government has decided to allow Malacca to hold state elections this month.

The Bugaya state seat fell vacant less than two months after the Sabah state elections when assemblyman Manis Muka Mohd Dara, from Warisan, died on November 11 last year.

The 65-year-old had died at a private hospital in the state capital due to kidney-related complications.

In the last elections, she retained the Bugaya seat with a 6,005 majority after polling 8,557 votes in a six-cornered fight, which featured candidates from Bersatu, PPRS, USNO, PCS and two independents.

The Warisan member had yet to take her oath as an assemblyman as she was placed under quarantine earlier after coming into contact with a Covid-19 patient.

Following her death, a state of emergency was called on the Bugaya constituency to stop the by-election fearing that it could fuel another surge in Covid-19 cases.

Besides Bugaya, two federal seats – Grik and Batu Sapi – are still vacant after the deaths of the MPs. The by-elections for both seats were also stopped by emergency proclamations on the constituencies. 

There will, however, be no by-elections for Grik and Batu Sapi as it has passed the three-year mark needed to fill the vacancies after the last general election in May 2018. – October 25, 2021.