PETALING JAYA: The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) has retained the 71-seat Sarawak State Legislative Assembly despite some good showing by Pakatan Rakyat.
Election Commission chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof announced at 9pm that BN had gained a simple majority.
And by 9.45pm, another official announcement stated that BN had clinched 48 seats, which meant that the coalition had retained its two-thirds in the state assembly.
Official results indicated that BN had bagged 55 seats in all, while Pakatan Rakyat’s PKR and DAP managed to wrestle away 15 seats in the state. An independent also won one in Pelagus.
PAS and Sarawak Nasional Party (SNAP), however, failed to win any of the seats they contested.
Abdul Aziz also said that the voter turnout stood at 70%. BN managed to get 372,379 votes while DAP got 142, 847 votes. The opposition in total got 300,288 votes.
At the 2006 state election, BN obtained 63 seats, DAP won six, SNAP and PKR one each. This time around, BN lost an additional eight seats to the opposition compared to the 2006 polls.
The BN only needed to win 36 seats to obtain a simple majority and triumph in 48 seats to safeguard its two-thirds majority at the state assembly.
The biggest winner of this polls was opposition-based DAP. Out of the 15 seats contested by the DAP, it emerged victorious in 12 seats. PKR, on the other hand, contested 49 seats and won 3 seats, according to Abdul Aziz.
At the 2006 election, DAP managed to win six seats while PKR won only one.
Biggest losers
SNAP and PAS were the biggest casualties. SNAP was the biggest letdown since it was a Sarawak- based political party which was expected to clinch several seats.
A sole independent candidate was picked as a state assemblyman in Pelagus, the seat vacated by the popular Larry Sng. The Pelagus seat, unofficial results said, was won by George Lagong who beat Stanley Nyitar of the BN and Edward Sumbang Asun from PKR.
The single biggest loser in this election was SUPP, the second largest political party in the state after Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB). It is also the largest Chinese-based party in the state under the BN fold.
The party president and deputy chief minister George Chan Hong Nam lost his long-held Piasau seat in Miri to Ling Sie Kiong of DAP. The party’s candidates in Miri were severely tested with most of them losing their seats.
The party was severely punished by Chinese voters who were dissatisfied with the party’s stand in backing Taib’s long tenure. The community also felt that issues were not being addressed by the BN.
Another deputy chief minister, Alfred Jabu, from PBB, however, won in Layar.
Taib triumphs
Long-serving Chief Minister Taib Mahmud retained his seat in Balingian. Taib had been the opposition’s focal point and came under relentless attacks.
Taib beat Suriati Abdullah of the PKR and Salleh Jafaruddin, an independent. The official tally for the seat is yet to be announced.
Taib, who has served as chief minister the last 30 years, was accused of enriching himself, family members and his cronies by awarding contracts to them. He was also accused of taking over ancestral land belonging to the local people.
Taib has refuted all these allegations.
Taib’s PBB, which contested in 35 seats, managed to win all. BN’s second biggest ally in Sarawak, SUPP, won only six out of 19 seats, PRS won eight out of nine and SPDP six out of eight.
In the Pakatan front, DAP was the biggest winner, taking 12 out of the 15 seats it contested. PKR, which contested in 49 seats, only won three. PAS lost all the five seats it contested. SNAP also lost in all 26 seats it contested. A total of 71 candidates lost their deposit.
With a reduced majority, the state BN has to do some soul-searching in its effort to safeguard the state at the next election, expected in 2015, especially in the urban areas.
Najib thanks voters
On another front, Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian has triumphed in Ba’Kelalan. He beat Willie Liau of the BN in the constituency which had 6,958 voters.
The representation of a larger number of opposition leaders in the usually “mild” state assembly is expected to ignite some fire in the state sittings.
With this decline in support, especially in Sarawak which had always been regarded as the vote bank of the BN, the ruling coalition would have to get back to the drawing board in an effort to win back the lost support, especially among the Chinese in the state.
The polls were also supposed to have been used by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as a yardstick in calling for a snap general election.
In an immediate press conference, Najib said he would be using the results of the Sarawak polls as a stepping stone to the next general election.
He also said that BN would study the reasons for the defeats in the urban areas. He added that BN will fulfil all the pledges made to the voters. He also congratulated Taib over the victory.
Taib was immediately sworn in as the chief minister at about 10.40pm.
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