As Sabah governor picks Hajiji to be CM, Shafie thanks Sabahans for support
KOTA KINABALU, Sept 28 — Parti Warisan Sabah president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal made a brief appearance today after retreating from the public eye the last two days.
Shafie emerged from his Yayasan Sabah home in Likas here this afternoon and smiled broadly at reporters and the gathering of Warisan Plus supporters — some who had been waiting outside his residence since 9am.
“Thank you. Thank you for your support,” he said repeatedly, smiling and waving to the crowd.
“We will continue our service,” the reelected Senallang assemblyman added, without replying to questions from the press.
At the same time today, Sabah Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Datuk Hajiji Noor was meeting state governor Tun Juhar Mahiruddin at the Istana Negeri here.
The Sulaman assemblyman was given a letter endorsing him as the 16th Sabah chief minister and is to be sworn in tomorrow morning.
Shafie has been keeping a low profile since last Saturday’s election results put his Warisan Plus coalition six seats behind the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) alliance, which includes Hajiji’s PN.
He emerged from his house about 1am Sunday proclaiming Warisan as the single party with 29 seats, the highest number in the 73-seat legislature, and fuelled rumours that there may be new negotiations with the other election winners that will enable him to remain chief minister another term.
The speculations were further solidified when GRS could not resolve their differences and reach a consensus about who should be their chief minister.
However, GRS finally named Hajiji as its sole chief minister candidate earlier today.
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