KOTA KINABALU: Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) is not looking to contest against any parties within the Pakatan Harapan coalition and their electoral partners in Sabah, says Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu.

The party president said that Amanah aims to strengthen the Pakatan coalition in preparation for the impending state election.

At the launch of the Amanah election machinery on Saturday (July 19), he said relations within Pakatan are strong, and there is no question of not cooperating in the upcoming state polls.

“However, to activate and mobilise our election machinery, we need to instruct and provide guidance to our members on ground operations and preparations,” Mohamad said.

He said that Sabah politics differ from Peninsular Malaysia, where parties may not be aligned locally but are allied at the federal level.

For example, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah and Sabah Barisan Nasional are not on good terms locally, but they are partners at the federal level.

Similarly, Parti Warisan and Sabah Pakatan are not aligned in Sabah, but Warisan supports the Madani government.

“We are entering this state election on a friendship basis, like a friendly competition,” Mohamad said, emphasising that this does not mean they won’t fully support Amanah candidates.

He said they will support member candidates and hope their allies will reciprocate.

Regarding seat allocations, he said that Amanah has a few seats in mind but stressed that final decisions will be made after further discussions with Sabah Pakatan and Barisan.

During his speech, Mohamad mentioned Tanjung Aru, Lumadan, and Sulabayan as seats of interest.