Sarawak-based Parti Aspirasi has named nine candidates for the Sabah election

KOTA KINABALU, Nov 13 2025: Parti Aspirasi Rakyat Sarawak (Parti Aspirasi) has named its nine candidates to contest in the November 29 Sabah state election.

Caption: Parti Aspirasi president Lina Soo (wearing red shirt) with the candidates.

Its president Lina Soo said that the decision follows extensive grassroots engagement that reveals a growing sentiment among disillusioned voters who are weary of decades of neglect, broken promises, and mismanagement by successive administrations.

“There is a clear yearning among the people of Sabah for genuine hope and change,”  she said in a statement posted on her Facebook account, today.

 “The people of Sabah are looking for hope — and we are here to give them that hope,” she asserted after presenting Letters of Authorisation to use the party’s symbol to nine potential candidates yesterday.

The candidates are: Johanes bin Sakian - Matunggung (N.5); Norman bin Tulang - Bandau (N.6); Sylvester Molukun @ Sylvester Chin - Kepayan (N.25); Richard Jimmy Majaing @ Dolly Yapp - Moyog (N.26); Yakub bin Wahid - Pantai Manis (N.29); Bainun bin John @ B. Nick Steyward - Sindumin (N.25); Yasheer bin Yakub - Sulabayan (N.64);  Bakri bin Arolah - Senallang (N.65) and Maulana bin Unding - Bugaya (N.66).

Soon said the party’s political struggle in the 17^th Sabah election will be centred on the sovereignty and existential identity of the state.

“Sabah is a component nation — a negara — within the Federation of Malaysia,” Soo emphasised.

“Parti Aspirasi’s core election manifesto is to defend and reclaim the sovereignty of Negara Sabah, as guaranteed under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and the Constitution of Sabah annexed to it.”

Citing the Constitution of Sabah, Part I, Article 1(1), which states that “there shall be a Head of State for Sabah to be called the Yang di-Pertua Negara”, she added this provision clearly demonstrates Sabah’s political status as a Negara within the Malaysian Federation.

She also welcomed Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s decision not to appeal the 40 per cent special grant entitlement due to Sabah for the past 48 years.

She described this as “a long-overdue acknowledgment of the major economic injustice Sabah has endured under past federal administrations, which has severely obstructed the state’s development.”

However, Soo points out that there are more than ten major breaches of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 that remain unresolved and must be addressed urgently if Sabah is to progress as an equal partner and nation within Malaysia in the 21st century.

“The constitutional and legitimate platform to address these injustices done to Sabah is the Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN),” said Soo.

“Parti As[irasi will expose more of these violations of MA63 in the Sabah Legislative Assembly. We therefore seek to send the party’s representatives to the legislative assembly to reclaim Sabah’s territorial and economic sovereignty, which has long been eroded by previous administrations.”

Soo urged the people of Sabah to vote wisely in the election, reminding them that an election is not just about giving any political party a chance to govern — but about wisely casting their votes with intelligence for a brighter and more prosperous future for them and Sabah.