KOTA KINABALU: Still seething with anger, PKR vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan has offered himself for re-election as vice-president in the national party elections next month.
One of his allies will be gunning for a divisional post against an incumbent closely associated with PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim.
With his focus on the vice presidential spot, Jeffrey will not seek re-election as a ketua cabang or divisional head later this month.
The Sabah opposition strongman was initially expected to challenge incumbent Danny Andipai of Pensiangan, a large rural area neighbouring Indonesian Kalimantan Timur and on the borders of his Keningau stronghold.
Nomination for the Pensiangan division has been postponed to Sept 5, and is the last division to hold nomination as more time was needed to send notices to all members as a result of a change in the venue.
The earlier nomination venue, which was at the house of the incumbent, has also been switched to the PKR liaison office in Sook, Pensiangan.
Jeffrey is likely to put up a local as a proxy candidate in Pensiangan and will extend his fight in almost all the 25 PKR divisions in Sabah.
Meanwhile, it appears that the Kimanis division is in limbo. It has not registered a single nomination. Even its current head, Awang Tangah Awang Amin, who at one time was Sabah PKR liaison head, has failed to file his nomination papers.
The party headquarters is now expected to decide a new date for the Kimanis nomination.
An early contender, Benjamin Ondoi, too did not file his nomination as he had just quit PKR and joined Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), a local-based opposition party.
Meanwhile, party insiders revealed that Jeffrey is still seething at Anwar and that those aligned to the former will go all out to ensure the defeat of Ansari Abdullah, Anwar's blue-eyed boy, in Tuaran, here.
All eyes will be on former Tamparuli assemblyman, Edward Linggu. If he unseats Ansari, that would be the end of Ansari and Anwar's power in Sabah, they said.
Observers said Anwar's reliance on Ansari, a practising lawyer, has been a thorn in the flesh for a faction within Sabah PKR ever since several divisional leaders rejected Ansari's leadership.
They claim the defeat of Ansari, a Anwar loyalist, who has stood unsuccessfully for state and parliamentary elections several times, will significantly reduce conflict in Sabah PKR and pave the way for a more strengthened and united Sabah PKR.
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