KOTA KINABALU: Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) is set to formally spread its wings to Sabah amid perceived tensions with its ally Parti Warisan.

       Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman confirmed that his party was in the process of setting up in Sabah but dismissed talk that his party and Warisan had estranged after they went separate ways in the recently concluded Johor state election.

       "Our relations are very good, I respect (Warisan president) Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal. We are here to build stronger bridges together as part of the opposition working together," he said when asked about his relations with Mohd Shafie.

       "I have been meeting with him (Mohd Shafie), even after the Johor state election, we did meet up and also talked over the phone.

       "He is someone who I do respect. I’ll be meeting up with my friends from Warisan during my trip as well, I think it is important to work together to build a strong opposition coalition to move forward," he said after attending a Muda town hall session with local groups on Sunday (April 17) evening.

       Questions about close cooperation between Warisan and Muda were widely seen to have hit a bad patch after the Johor election when Muda went ahead to forge an electoral pact with DAP and Amanah for the Johor election without consulting Warisan.

       Muda and Warisan announced that they were working together as an "alliance" in December last year but events prior to the Johor state elections raised questions if the two parties were still hand in glove with each other.

       On a question about whether Muda's move to Sabah would affect the relationship, Syed Saddiq replied, "Muda and Warisan will work closely together."

       Sabah Muda chief Amos Thien said the Sabah Muda launch would be done as soon as they organised the 25 parliamentary divisions and were hoping to be done before the 15th General Election (GE15).

       "We definitely do not have a rigid timeline but we try to do it within this year," he added.

       Syed Saddiq said that Muda's entry was not recent and they have been in Sabah over the last two years.

       "We need a strong organisational structure. Even in rural seats we want to work very hard," he said, but he did not want to indicate how many seats the party was eyeing in Sabah.

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