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KOTA KINABALU: The Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition has obtained a simple majority in Sabah’s state elections, according to official results released by the Election Commission (EC) on Saturday (September 26) evening.
The coalition, which is backed by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, is made up of Perikatan Nasional (PN), Barisan Nasional (BN) and other state parties such as Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) and Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR).
At around 11:30 p.m., the EC confirmed that the parties that make up the GRS have won 37 seats, more than half of the 73 seats in total.
Meanwhile, its main contenders, the Warisan Plus coalition, prevailed in 26 electoral districts as of 11:30 p.m., according to the EC.
The current Warisan Plus coalition is made up of Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan), the state-based United Progressive Kinabalu Organization (UPKO), as well as the national parties Pakatan Harapan (PH) Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Amanah. Status (trust).
The results mean that GRS can form the new state government and a new chief minister will be appointed to replace Warisan’s boss, Shafie Apdal.
Polls saw fights from multiple corners in all 73 seats. A total of 447 candidates, including 56 independents, stood for election.
At 11:30 pm, EC President Abdul Ghani Salleh told a press conference that among the parties in the GRS coalition, the PN has 17 seats, the BN has 14 seats and PBS has six seats.
Meanwhile, for the Warisan Plus coalition parties, Warisan won 24 seats, PKR one seat and UPKO one seat. Two seats went to independent candidates.
At 11:30 p.m., the results of 65 of the 73 seats were announced.
Key GRS leaders Bung Moktar Radin and Hajiji Mohd Noor from BN and Bersatu won their seats in Lamag and Sulaman convincingly.
Speaking to the media around 9.30pm, Mr. Bung Moktar said: “GRS is discussing its leadership and other issues … We promise that this government will be transparent and the well-being of the people (will be) taken care of.”
The polls were carried out amid political uncertainty at the federal level, after opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim announced on Wednesday that he has obtained a “strong, formidable and convincing majority” of members of Parliament (MP) to overthrow the current government led by Muhyiddin.
Since then, Muhyiddin has cast doubt on Anwar’s claim, noting that the PKR president has not specified the MPs who were supposedly backing him.
During the course of the campaign, Mr. Muhyiddin also hinted that an early 15th general election could be held if GRS wins the Sabah election.
