The 2020 Sabah state election took place on 26 September 2020[1] to elect all 73 elected members of the 16th Sabah State Legislative Assembly. The previous Assembly was dissolved on 30 July 2020.[2]
Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition won the election with a simple majority of 38 seats. Hajiji Noor from BERSATU–PN was sworn in as Chief Minister 3 days later. The alliance of Perikatan Nasional with 17 seats, Barisan Nasional with 14 seats, and PBS with 7 seats made GRS the biggest electoral coalition in Sabah since September 2020.
This was the first Sabah state election not held on the same day as the Malaysia general election since 1999, when Sabah held its election on March that year as opposed to the general election date in November 1999.
Background
The 14th general election witnessed 29 seats from the government side and 31 seats from the non-government side filled the State Legislative Assembly. This count, however, did not include six seats from United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (UPKO) and four from UMNO that switched allegiance from Musa to Shafie. The government side has 11 safe seats and four fairly safe seats, while the non-government side has two safe seats and fivefairly safe seats.
The 14th general election witnessed 29 seats from the government side and 31 seats from the non-government side filled the State Legislative Assembly. This count, however, did not include 6 seats from United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (UPKO) and 4 from United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) that switched allegiance from Musa to Shafie. The government side has 11 safe seats and 4 fairly safe seats, while the non-government side has 2 safe seats and 5 fairly safe seats.[citation needed]
Warisan saw a gain of 2 more seats from its previous 21 seats in the 2018 election. While its ally PKR and DAP retained their number of seats with 2 and 6 respectively. Warisan also made history by becoming the first and only single party in Sabah to not govern the state despite winning the most seats overall.[citation needed]
On the other side, STAR, led by Jeffrey Kitingan won 6 seats compared to 2 in the previous election, with most of the seats won hailing from the interior of Sabah which is dominated by the Kadazan-Dusun-Murut (KDM) community. UPKO, even though representing the KDM community, managed only 1 seat in this election, a loss from 6 seats in the previous election.[citation needed]
PPBM or Bersatu, despite being a Malay-based party from West Malaysia and contesting in Sabah for the first time, won 11 seats.[citation needed]
Following the Sabah state government's announcement on 9 August that the state election would be held on 26 September, several members of the public and democracy observers urged local authorities to consider postal voting due to the ongoing pandemic and in order to reduce virus transmissions during the election.[11][12] On 21 August, the High Court dismissed an appeal by 33 Sabah assemblymen against Governor Juhar Mahiruddin's consent for the dissolution of Sabah's legislative assembly, allowing the state election to go ahead.[13][14] On 11 September, the Federal Court dismissed Datuk Jahid Noordin Jahim's appeal to stop the election, allowing nominations to proceed the following day.[15]
The return of voters and politicians from Sabah to Peninsular Malaysia has caused a significant influx of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia. Daily reported cases increased to three digit numbers. Several of these ministers and politicians had reportedly not complied with standard procedures around COVID-19.[16][17][18] On 14 October, the Federal Government announced the implementation of a Conditional Movement Control Order in Selangor, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur due to the rising number of cases.[19][20]
Following the results of the Malaysian general election in November 2022, and the formation of government consisting of the alliance between Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional, GRS announced their inclusion into the alliance (despite GRS members Bersatu, SAPP and STAR aligning with Perikatan Nasional at the time), and signed a cooperation agreement with other parties involved on 16 December 2022.[21] On 10 December 2022, MLAs and MPs from Bersatu Sabah announced they will quit the party and become direct member of GRS, in line of the coalition at federal level.[22][23] On 17 December 2022, GRS officially expelled Bersatu from the coalition.[24] STAR, another member party of both GRS and PN, announced its exit from PN on 5 December 2022.[25] SAPP is the only member party of both GRS and PN as of December 2022,[26] however the party leader Yong Teck Lee announced its exit from PN in December 2024.[27]
Aside from the change above, the status quo is not changed for the government in Sabah. Even though PH and WARISAN is allied with GRS at federal level, they are still opposition to the GRS-led administration at state level.[28]
The 2023 Sabah political crisis or widely reported on local media as Langkah Kinabalu or the Kinabalu Move, began on 6 January 2023, when the state government of Sabah led by Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) collapsed when its coalition party Barisan Nasional (BN) withdrew its support.[29] The Leader of UMNO Sabah, a component party of BN, Bung Moktar Radin, Kinabatangan Member of Parliament (MP) and Lamag Assemblyman, cited a lack of confidence in the leadership of Chief Minister of SabahHajiji Noor in the withdrawal. UMNO Sabah want to change support from supporting GRS coalition to supporting the WARISAN Plus coalition.[30] On 9 January, both Malaysian leaders, prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi travelled to Kota Kinabalu to meet with Sabah political leaders.[31] This crisis resulted in the approval of the Anti-Switching Parties Law[32] in Sabah(approved in 25 May 2023) and the GRS coalition succeeded in retaining the government.[33]
As of 6 February, there have been no changes in the status quo regarding the government of Sabah, following the decision of 5 UMNO MLAs who publicly supported Hajiji despite Bung's decision, and a reshuffle of the state cabinet on 11 January as a result.[34] As of 25 May 2023, Sabah State Legislative Assembly finally approved the Anti-Switching Parties Law (Anti-frogs habit).[35]
↑ Combined result of Barisan Nasional (excluding UPKO, which left BN and allied with Warisan between elections; Gerakan, which did not contest the election; and LDP, which also left BN and contested independently; 24 seats, 34.92%), STAR (2 seats, 4.59%) and SAPP (0 seats, 0.57%) in the last election. This was Bersatu's first election in Sabah.
↑ Combined result of Warisan (21 seats, 31.30%), Pakatan Harapan (8 seats, 14.63%) and UPKO (5 seats, 3.85%) in the last election. UPKO left BN and allied with Warisan in between elections.
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