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KOTA KINABALU – People in Malaysia’s second-largest state are patiently queuing on Saturday (September 26) to vote at the Sabah state polls, an important test for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin, in power for seven months, needs his Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) alliance to seize power from an allied faction of the federal opposition parties.
The state elections are held just days after opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim launched an attempt on Wednesday to topple him as prime minister.
Muhyiddin’s GRS alliance comprises his Perikatan Nasional (PN) faction, the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, and several other Sabah-based parties. These groups collide with each other in 17 of the 73 state assembly seats at stake.
There are more than 400 candidates vying for the 73 seats, and some districts see an 11-corner fight.
A victory in Sabah could help Muhyiddin protect his slim majority in the federal parliament, which seems uncertain at the moment.
People started queuing from 7 a.m. on Saturday, adhering to the new Covid-19 security measures.
Turnout was 54 percent at 2 p.m., the Electoral Commission (EC) said, and polling stations will close at 5 p.m.
The drastic spike in Covid-19 cases on the east coast of Sabah has lowered expectations for voter turnout, and the EC revised its turnout forecast from 75% to 70%.
Almost 1.1 million Sabahans are eligible to vote, and some 28,000 staff members have been deployed to conduct the elections, involving 741 polling stations.
The Sabah Heritage Party, led by Chief Minister Shafie Apdal, ruled the state after the 2018 general elections. Warisan is aligned with Datuk Seri Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) opposition coalition in the federal Parliament.
On Saturday, poll workers were dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) and scanned the temperature of each voter at the entrance to polling stations. Voters in the queue were separated by safe distances.
Voters described the process as straightforward.
One of them, 37-year-old Julia Chan, said the whole process took 20 minutes despite security protocols, which was much faster compared to the 90 minutes it took in the 2018 elections.
Another voter, Phang Yuk Yin, said that many voters had turned up in the morning despite Covid-19 concerns.
“It’s a very efficient process on the part of the EC. After all, as Sabahans, this is our state and this is our responsibility,” Phang, 51, told The Straits Times.
Datuk Seri Shafie, who voted in his Senallang state constituency on Saturday morning, also said voter turnout could be lower due to concerns about the virus.
There are 730 active cases on the east coast of Sabah alone, all of them discovered this month. Only the state had triple-digit daily infections twice this week.
The EC said it aims to have full results by 10 pm, but said it relies heavily on counting officers at polling stations, some of whom are in remote areas.
Sabah’s vast interiors, with no immediate road access, means that some ballots are transported by helicopter.
In Sabah’s latest state elections, which were held at the same time as the 2018 national elections, the results were announced only at 5 a.m., after a 77% turnout.
The Straits Times previously reported that thousands of Sabah voters who are working or studying in Peninsular Malaysia are expected to miss state elections, unable to pay for airline tickets, along with concerns about the spread of the virus.
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