The 1985 Sabah state election was held between Saturday, 20 April and Sunday, 21 April 1985. This was the fifth state election to take place.

Parti Bersatu Sabah The United Sabah Party or formerly known as United Sabah Movement (; abbrev: PBS) is a political party of Sabah. PBS had been recognized by the people of Sabah as ''historical local party'' since 1985. The PBS was founded by Joseph Pairin Kiti ...

won 25 out 48 seats contested, thus forming government with its president

Joseph Pairin Kitingan Joseph Pairin Kitingan (born 17 August 1940) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 7th Chief Minister of Sabah from April 1985 to March 1994 and Member of Parliament (MP) for Keningau from August 1986 to May 2018. He is founding Presi ...

being sworn in as

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 ter ...

. This election is a milestone in Sabah political history as it marked the first time that a party not part of the nation's ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) formed government. PBS took control of the state from the previous ruling government under Parti Berjaya—a partner of BN, which has been in power since 1976.

Results

Aftermath

Pairin, himself a former member of Party Berjaya, formed PBS barely 47 days before the elections. Opponents of PBS, namely,

Harris Salleh Tan Sri Dato' Sri Harris bin Mohd Salleh (born 4 November 1930) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 6th Chief Minister of Sabah from June 1976 to April 1985. During his tenure, he ceded the island of Labuan, which used to be part of ...

of Berjaya, and Tun Mustapha of USNO were dissatisfied with the result. Tun Mustapha then sought to get sworn in as Chief Minister illegally, and this resulted in a court battle which ended in favour of Pairin. The election resulted in riots around Sabah between March and May 1986. Bombings occurred in

Kota Kinabalu Kota Kinabalu (; formerly known as Jesselton), colloquially referred to as KK, is the state capital of Sabah, Malaysia. It is also the capital of the Kota Kinabalu District as well as the West Coast Division of Sabah. The city is located on the ...

, and arson in other towns. The rioters were trying to bring down Pairin from being the head of the state government. In 1986 itself, another election was announced following defections by PBS assemblymen to USNO. PBS won again, this time with a two-thirds majority. PBS joined the Barisan Nasional coalition after this election, but later left the coalition in 1990.

References

{{Malaysian elections Sabah state elections

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...