Sabah dissolves state assembly, paving way for polls led by Anwar’s ally GRS

Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Mohd Noor has dissolved the state assembly, paving the way for the 17th state election, with his Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) ruling coalition hoping to retain power with help from Ma-Jaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) alliance.

- Lu Wei Hoong

“After receiving consent from the Sabah governor, the Sabah State Assembly will be dissolved today. The people of Sabah will be able to exercise their democratic right to decide who will lead them,” Datuk Seri Hajiji announced in Ko-ta Kinabalu on Oct 6. The state polls must be held within 60 days.

The election looks to be a multi-cornered fight as party loyalties remain fluid in the Land Below the Wind, where no single coalition is likely to claim a simple majority in the state assembly, analysts say. Intense post-election bargaining is anticipated before the next government is formed, as happened after the 2020 Sabah state polls.

The polls for Malaysia’s second-biggest state by land size after Sarawak involve three main factions: the GRS-PH bloc, Barisan Nasional (BN) Sabah and opposition Parti Warisan Sabah.

A fourth faction, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) opposition coalition led by Malay-Muslim based parties from Peninsular Malaysia, is expected to field its candidates in all 73 wards but is unlikely to make much headway because of its religion-and-race platform.