KOTA KINABALU:
The Anti Corruption Agency in Sabah will assist their headquarters in Putrajaya in screening all candidates from political parties who are expected to stand in the coming general election. Its Director Puan Latifah Mohd Yatim, said the screening process is important to ensure that only those who are free from any corruption charges or abuse of power would be nominated as candidates. In this respect, the ACA hopes that the Barisan Nasional as well as the opposition parties would submit lists of names of their potential candidates, which would be referred to the ACA headquarters. “To date, we have yet to receive any list. If we have, we will help our headquarters to carry out the screening process,” she said at a press conference, here, yesterday. Asked whether the ACA has their own list of potential candidates from political parties in Sabah who might be standing in the coming elections, Latifah said she would discuss the matter at the right time. Barisan Nasional has 59 seats in the 60-seat State Legislative Assembly. The other seat (Kuala Penyu) is held by an Independent. At the parliamentary level, BN has 24 seats while the Sandakan Parliamentary seat is held by an Independent too. Last week, ACA Investigations Director, Datuk Shukri Abdul announced that the ACA is ready to screen the lists of candidates, as given by political parties, standing in the coming elections.
Before, the ACA would only wait for the lists of candidates before studying their backgrounds and ensuring that they are eligible to stand in the parliamentary and state constituencies as set by the Election Commission and the ACA. The screening process is the
ACA’s responsibility to ensure only those eligible would stand, which is similarly done in officers promotion exercises in the Civil Service. Under the procedure, the candidate lists can be submitted to the ACA Headquarters through the ACA offices in the respective states. However, to date, no one has submitted any list.
