Mahathir in Sabah for talks

Mahathir in Sabah for talks

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad flew to the eastern state of Sabah on Friday for a two-day "working visit" amid growing talk of an impending state election.

Mahathir and his wife were welcomed by Sabah Chief Minister Bernard Dompok in Kota Kinabalu. Dompok said Mahathir discussed the state election but "not very much" during a meeting with members of the state Cabinet, the official Bernama news agency reported.

Mahathir met religious leaders and attended a rally by youths from the ruling National Front coalition later on Friday before meeting on Saturday with local members of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the dominant party in the coalition.

Sabah, in the northeast part of Borneo, has to hold state elections by the middle of next year. Following the last election in 1994, it introduced a power-sharing system whereby the post of chief minister is shared between the three main ethnic groups -- Moslems, non-Moslem natives and Chinese.