The 2020 Sabah state election took place on 26 September 2020 to elect all 73 elected members of the 16th Sabah State Legislative Assembly. The previous Assembly was dissolved on 30 July 2020. The state

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

was called prematurely after a political crisis arose. Both

Shafie Apdal Datuk Seri Panglima Mohd Shafie bin Apdal ( Jawi: محمد شافعي بن أفضل; born 20 October 1956) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Semporna since April 1995, State Leader of the Opposition ...

, incumbent

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

and leader of

Sabah Heritage Party The Heritage Party ( ms, Parti Warisan or Warisan) is a multi-racial political party in Malaysia which was rebranded and renamed from the Sabah Heritage Party ( ms, Parti Warisan Sabah), a Sabah-based party led by Shafie Apdal formed earlier o ...

(WARISAN) and

Pakatan Harapan The Alliance of Hope ( ms, Pakatan Harapan; abbrev: PH; stylized as HARAPAN) is a Malaysian political coalition consisting of centre-left political parties which was formed in 2015 to succeed the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. It has been the ...

(PH) coalition government and

Musa Aman Musa Bin Haji Aman ( Jawi: موسى بن حاج أمان; born 30 March 1951) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 14th Chief Minister, State Minister of Finance from March 2003 to May 2018, Member of the Sabah State Legislative Ass ...

, leader of

Perikatan Nasional The National Alliance ( ms, Perikatan Nasional; abbreviation, abbrev: PN) is a political coalition composed of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU), Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (GERAKAN). This coa ...

(PN) and

Barisan Nasional The National Front ( ms, Barisan Nasional; abbrev: BN) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1973 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties. It is also the third largest political coalition with 30 ...

(BN) coalition opposition claimed to have the majority to form the government. However, the Governor of Sabah,

Juhar Mahiruddin Tun Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Juhar bin Mahiruddin ( ms, جوهر بن ماهرالدين, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; born 5 November 1953) is a Malaysian politician who has been the 10th Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Sabah since Januar ...

decided to dissolve the State Legislative Assembly on the advice of Shafie. The state election was conducted under the

New Normal A new normal is a state to which an economy, society, etc. settles following a crisis, when this differs from the situation that prevailed prior to the start of the crisis. The term has been employed in relation to World War I, the September 11 ...

and special standard operating procedures (SOP) imposed by the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

(EC) as the country is still observing the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Gabungan Rakyat Sabah coalition won the election with a simple majority of 38 seats. The coalition consists of

United Malays National Organisation The United Malays National Organisation ( Malay: ; Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party within Malaysia (since its ...

(UMNO) (14) From Barisan National Party seat – Won 14 seats and

Malaysian United Indigenous Party The Malaysian United Indigenous Party ( ms, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia), abbreviated BERSATU or PPBM, is a nationalist political party in Malaysia. The party was preceded by the United Indigenous Association of Malaysia (). It is a major c ...

(BERSATU) (11),

Homeland Solidarity Party Homeland Solidarity Party (STAR; ms, Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku ) is a Sabah-based political party. The party was founded on 1 July 2016 by Datuk Seri Panglima Dr. Jeffrey G. Kitingan. He is Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan's younger brothe ...

(STAR) (6) From

Party seat – Won 17 seats with supported by

United Sabah Party The United Sabah Party ( ms, Parti Bersatu Sabah, abbreviated PBS) is a political party of Sabah. The PBS was founded by Joseph Pairin Kitingan in 1985 and it is Sabah's oldest local party. In August 2020, PBS confirmed that they would be usin ...

(PBS) (7).

Hajiji Noor Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Hajiji bin Noor ( ms, عزيزي بن نور, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; born 10 May 1956) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the 16th Chief Minister of Sabah and State Minister of Finance since Se ...

from BERSATU –

Party was sworn in as Chief Minister 3 days later.

with 17 seats,

with 14 seats, and

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

with 7 seats made Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) the biggest electoral coalition in Sabah since September 2020.

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 The United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation ( ms, Pertubuhan Kinabalu Progresif Bersatu; abbrev: UPKO) is a multiracial political party based in Sabah, Malaysia. The party was rebranded from its previous party's name, United Pasokmomogun Ka ...

(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.

Constituencies

13 new seats are added into the existing 60 state constituencies as a result of redelineation of Sabah state constituencies approved by the Dewan Rakyat on 17 July 2019. The new seats are Bengkoka,

Bandau Bandau is a village and a former municipality in the district Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous cou ...

, Pintasan, Pantai Dalit, Darau, Tanjung Keramat, Limbahau, Tulid,

Telupid Telupid ( ms, Pekan Telupid) is the capital of the Telupid District in the Sandakan Division of Sabah, Malaysia. History Telupid was first settled around 1940s and became the major route for the Sandakan Death Marches during World War II. At ...

, Sungai Manila, Lamag, Segama and Kukusan. PRN Sabah 2020

Retiring incumbents

The following members of the 15th State Legislative Assembly retired.

Opinion polling

The following table shows recent opinion polling from last two weeks.

Results

Summary

, - ! rowspan=2 colspan=4 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Party ! rowspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Candidates ! colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Vote ! colspan=3 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Seats , - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Won ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , +/– , - , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Gabungan Rakyat Sabah ''(unofficial alliance)'', , GRS, , 92, , 316,049, , 43.22, , 38, , 52.05, , 7 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , rowspan=7, , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, , UMNO, , 33 , , 122,358, , 16.73, , 14, , 19.18, , 3 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, , BERSATU, , 21 , , 86,383, , 11.81, , 11, , 15.06, , 11 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, , PBS, , 22 , , 49,941, , 6.83, , 7, , 9.59, , 1 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, , STAR, , 6 , , 35,586, , 4.87, , 6, , 8.22, , 4 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

United Sabah People's Party The United Sabah People's Party ( ms, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah; abbreviated: PBRS) is a minority political party based in Sabah, Malaysia. Presently PBRS is being led by its founding and first President; Joseph Kurup. PBRS is officially a c ...

, , PBRS, , 4 , , 9,687, , 1.32, , 0, , 0, , 1 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Malaysian Chinese Association The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA; zh, 马来西亚华人公会; ; ta, மலேசிய சீனர் சங்கம், initially known as the Malayan Chinese Association) is a uni-racial political party in Malaysia that seeks to ...

, , MCA, , 4 , , 8,948, , 1.22, , 0, , 0, , , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Sabah Progressive Party The Sabah Progressive Party ( ms, Parti Maju Sabah, abbreviated SAPP) is a multiracial political party based in Sabah, Malaysia. It was registered on 21 January 1994 by dissidents led by former Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee from Uni ...

, , SAPP, , 2 , , 3,146, , 0.43, , 0, , 0, , , - , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Warisan Plus'' (unofficial alliance)'', , WARISAN+, , 73 , , 317,541, , 43.42, , 32, , 43.83, , 3 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , rowspan=5, , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, , WARISAN, , 47 , , 186,749, , 25.54, , 23, , 31.51, , 2 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Democratic Action Party The Democratic Action Party (abbreviation: DAP; ms, Parti Tindakan Demokratik; ; ta, ஜனநாயக செயல் கட்சி) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Malaysia. As one of four component parties of the ...

, , DAP, , 6 , , 69,477, , 9.50, , 6, , 8.22, , , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

People's Justice Party The People's Justice Party ( ms, Parti Keadilan Rakyat , often known simply as KEADILAN or PKR) is a reformist political party in Malaysia, formed in 2003 by a merger of the National Justice Party and the older Malaysian People's Party. The ...

, , PKR, , 7 , , 28,372, , 3.88, , 2, , 2.74, , , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, , UPKO, , 12 , , 29,473, , 4.03, , 1, , 1.37, , 5 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" , National Trust Party, , AMANAH, , 1 , , 3,470, , 0.47, , 0, , 0, , , - , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" ,

Love Sabah Party The Love Sabah Party or in ms, Parti Cinta Sabah is a political party of Sabah, Malaysia. The PCS is a relatively new party and was among 20 new party registrations approved by the Registrar of Society in 2013. PCS joined together with the S ...

, , PCS, , 73 , , 29,118, , 3.98, , 0, , 0, , , - , style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Liberal Democratic Party, , LDP, , 46 , , 12,447, , 1.70, , 0, , 0, , , - , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" ,

United Sabah National Organisation (New) The United Sabah National Organisation (New) ( ms, Parti Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Sabah Bersatu (Baru); abbrev: USNO (Baru)Shown on Election Commission websites as USNO) is a political party in Sabah, Malaysia. The party was formed in 2013 with th ...

, , USNO, , 47 , , 8,815, , 1.21, , 0, , 0, , , - , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" ,

Sabah People's Hope Party Sabah People's Hope Party or ms, Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah (Harapan Rakyat / HR ) is a Sabah-based party. The party was formed on 25 October 2016, founded by Lajim Ukin. It was previously a party in the alliance of United Sabah Alliance (USA) ...

, , HR, , 5 , , 4,415, , 0.60, , 0, , 0, , , - , style="background-color: blue;" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Sabah People's Ideals Party, , GAGASAN, , 28 , , 3,747, , 0.51, , 0, , 0, , , - , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" ,

Sabah People's Unity Party Sabah People's Unity Party ( ms, Parti Perpaduan Rakyat Sabah, abbreviated: PPRS) is a Sabah-based-opposition party founded in 2017 by Mohd Arshad Abdul Mualap, a little known former teacher turn businessman-politician from Sungai Sibuga, the ...

, , PPRS, , 23 , , 2,160, , 0.30, , 0, , 0, , , - , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" ,

Sabah Native Co-operation Party The Sabah Native Cooperation Party ( ms, Parti Kerjasama Anak Negeri, abbreviated ''ANAK NEGERI'') is a political party in Malaysia based in Sabah. The party former name is Sabah People's Cooperation Party or ms, Parti Kerjasama Rakyat Sabah ...

, , ANAKNEGERI, , 2 , , 604, , 0.08, , 0, , 0, , , - , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" ,

Sabah Nationality Party Sabah Nationality Party or ms, Parti Kebangsaan Sabah (PKS) is a Sabah-based-opposition party in Malaysia formed after the 2013 Malaysian general election. Following its establishment, the party contested in the 2018 Malaysian general elect ...

, , PKS, , 1 , , 24, , 0.00, , 0, , 0, , , - , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Independents, , IND, , 56 , , 36,411, , 4.98, , 3, , 4.11, , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="5" , Valid votes, , 731,331, , rowspan="2" colspan="4" style="background-color:#dcdcdc;", , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="5" ,

Invalid Invalid may refer to: * Patient, a sick person * one who is confined to home or bed because of illness, disability or injury (sometimes considered a politically incorrect term) * .invalid, a top-level Internet domain not intended for real use As t ...

blank vote A protest vote (also called a blank, null, spoiled, or " none of the above" vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current political system. Protest voting takes a variety of forms ...

s, , 17,752 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="5" , Total votes (

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

: 66.61%), , 749,083, , 100.00, , 73, , 100.00, , 13 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="5" , Did not vote, , 375,515, , rowspan="7" colspan="4" style="background-color:#dcdcdc;", , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="5" ,

Registered voters In electoral systems, voter registration (or enrollment) is the requirement that a person otherwise eligible to vote must register (or enroll) on an electoral roll, which is usually a prerequisite for being entitled or permitted to vote. The ru ...

, , 1,124,598 , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4" , Ordinary voters, , 1,103,646 , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4" , Early voters, , 20,871 , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4" , Postal voters, , 81 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="10" , Source: Election Commission of Malaysia

Seats that changed allegiance

Election pendulum

(UPKO) and 4 from

(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.

Aftermath

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. On the other side, STAR, led by

Jeffrey Kitingan Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan (born 22 October 1948) is Malaysian politician. He served as the Deputy Chief Minister II of Sabah from 2020 to 2023 and State Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries since 2020 (also served in the same position for a ...

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 Kadazan-Dusun (also written as Kadazandusun or Mamasok Kadazan-Dusun) also less-known as "Mamasok Sabah" are two indigenous peoples of Sabah, Malaysia—the ethnic groups Kadazan and Dusun. The Kadazandusun is the largest native group of Bu ...

Murut Murut may refer to: * Murut people The Murut are an indigenous ethnic group, comprising 29 sub-ethnic groups inhabiting the northern inland regions of Borneo. The Murutic languages are a family of half a dozen closely related Austronesian lan ...

(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. PPBM or Bersatu, despite being a Malay-based party from West Malaysia and contesting in Sabah for the first time, won 11 seats. In just a years after election, There have several changes of status in sabat state seats. An assemblywoman for

Bugaya Muhammad Bugaya Dan Tsamiya, known as Bugaya, was a King of Kano who reigned from 1385 - 1390. Early life Muhammad was the son of Tsamiya and Maganarku. After the betrayal and subsequent murder of his father by his uncle Usman Zamnagawa, his u ...

passed away, triggering a by-election while Sebatik, Sindumin and Segama assemblymans was quit from party to become independent with support GRS government.

COVID-19 pandemic

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. 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. On 11 September, the Federal Court dismissed Datuk Jahid Noordin Jahim's appeal to stop the election, allowing nominations to proceed the following day. 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. On 14 October, the Federal Government announced the implementation of a Conditional Movement Control Order in

Selangor Selangor (; ), also known by its Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 Malaysian states. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east ...

, Putrajaya and

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

due to the rising number of cases.

Notes

References

{{Authority control

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

Elections in Sabah 2020 elections in Malaysia September 2020 events in Malaysia COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia