Shafie started his political career with the
United Sabah National Organisation (USNO). The party dissolved in 1994, and Shafie joined UMNO, which was then only starting to gain a presence in the state. In 1995 he was elected to federal Parliament as an UMNO member, for the seat of Semporna. He was appointed a parliamentary secretary before becoming Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government in 1999. From 1999 to 2004, he was Deputy Minister for Defence. After the
2004 election, he was appointed Minister of Domestic, Trade and Consumer Affairs in Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's Cabinet and was later given the Ministry of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage. On 10 April 2009, he became the Minister of Rural and Regional Development in the first Cabinet of Prime Minister
Najib Razak. This coincided with his election to one of the party's three vice-presidential posts, polling in third place behind
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and
Hishammuddin Hussein. He is the first Sabahan to hold a vice-presidency of UMNO. On 28 July 2015, Shafie was removed in the Cabinet reshuffle by Najib thus losing his rural and regional development portfolio. Following this, he formed a new Sabah-based opposition party known as WARISAN that was approved by Registrar of Societies (RoS) on 17 October 2016.
Appointment as a Chief Minister In the
2018 general election, Shafie's party of WARISAN together with the coalition of
Pakatan Harapan (PH) are tied up with 29-29 seats with BN in the
2018 Sabah state election.
Jeffrey Kitingan with his party of
Homeland Solidarity Party (STAR) under the
United Sabah Alliance (USA) which are not aligned from either the two sides, has won two seats in the election and subsequently emerged as the decision maker for the formation of a state government from the two sides. Jeffrey then decide to team up with the BN to form coalition state government with him appointed as a Deputy Chief Minister after Shafie Apdal the president of WARISAN disagreed to Jeffrey's permission to make Sabah's IC and solving the
Illegal Immigrant issues in Sabah.
Jeffrey Kitingan became the Deputy Chief Minister while
Musa Aman from BN to become the Chief Minister for another 5 years under the new coalition government (Coalition of BN-GBS). However, situation change when six seats assemblymen from the BN allied parties of
United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) and
United Sabah People's Party (PBRS) switched their allegiance to WARISAN, giving Shafie an advantage with 35 seats which is sufficient to establish a valid state government. Earlier, Musa Aman had already sworn in as Chief Minister following the help of two seats from STAR. This situation left Sabah with two ruling Chief Ministers, the second in its history since the dispute between PBS and USNO in 1980s. The results of this events sparks a
constitutional crisis in Sabah, and the need to review and change the current constitution so as to curb the "allegiance switching" of assemblymen, after the swearing-in ceremony of the chief minister. Another four seats assemblymen from BN allied parties of UMNO and UPKO switching their allegiance to WARISAN on 13 May 2018. The
Yang di-Pertua Negeri Juhar Mahiruddin also had requested for Musa to step down, despite Musa still stressing that he still the rightful Chief Minister. Musa was then issued a letter from the TYT that he is no longer the Chief Minister effective from 12 May 2018 that was delivered into his residence on 14 May 2018. On 7 November, the high court in
Kota Kinabalu decided that Shafie remained the legitimate Chief Minister of Sabah and dismissed a suit made by Musa who claimed his dismissal as chief minister was illegal and against the state constitution. On 30 July 2020, upon the political manoeuvring in
Sabah, he announced that the
Yang di-Pertua Negeri Juhar Mahiruddin had agreed to dissolve the
Sabah State Legislative Assembly to hold a state election in his audience with Juhar. On 27 September 2020, his party lost its majority in the Sabah Election to the
Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) led by
Hajiji Noor. This made way for Hajiji to swear-in as the new
Chief Minister of Sabah. After leaving office as the Chief Minister of Sabah, Shafie consistently and vocally criticised Hajiji and his GRS administration over their handling of a number of issues such as the water crisis in the state. == Personal life ==