Parti Warisan (Warisan) will contest all 73 state constituencies in the coming Sabah election, with president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal making it clear the party intends to go it alone.

The Senallang assemblyman said candidates have already been lined up, when moving to silence persistent rumours he would cut deals with other political parties.

“There are many rumours. There was a rumour we worked with UMNO, and now there’s a rumour we’re working with Perikatan,” Shafie told villagers at Kampung Imam Laggu on Friday.

“I’ve made it clear, we are only working with the people of Sabah. For that I would like to announce that we will contest in all 73 seats… all the seats.”

Shafie said politics had become the most divisive force in Sabah, with the rapid growth of local and national parties fracturing the electorate.

“I’m worried about the political divide. It’s the biggest divide of all. In Sabah, there are so many parties. I’ve never seen politics as fragmented as this, not in the US, UK, or even Japan,” he said.

He pointed to the Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) bloc alone as having five parties – PBRS, UPKO, KDM, PBS and STAR – while other local groups and peninsula-based parties are making inroads into Sabah.

“Even people from the peninsula are coming in,” he said, warning that such splintering risked weakening Sabah’s collective voice in national politics.

Shafie also reflected on past collaborations, noting that Warisan had once extended support to leaders across the national spectrum, including Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Warisan won 23 seats in the 2020 state election, but 11 of its assemblymen later defected to back Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), leaving the party weakened in the current assembly. – August 1, 2025