Chinese voter exodus from Malaysia’s DAP dents Anwar’s 2nd-term hopes

Drop in support in Sabah leaves PM’s coalition without its strongest vote bank

- Shannon Teoh Malaysia Bureau Chief

The Pakatan Harapan (PH) operations centre on the night of the Sabah state elections on Nov 29. Should the Sabah voter exodus extend nationwide at a general election due by early 2028, it would certainly end any chance of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim winning a second term. PHOTO: BERNAMA

(BERNAMA)

Sabahans delivered Malaysia's largest ruling party, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a stunning blow as it lost all eight seats it contested in the Nov 29 Sabah state polls.

This was due to urban and especially ethnic Chinese voters, who make up a quarter of Malaysia’s electorate, deserting Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, leaving it without its strongest vote bank stretching back nearly two decades.

Out of 22 seats contested in the 73-strong assembly, PH won just one. That, too, only by co-opting newly appointed State Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Minister Jamawi Ja’afar. Since 2020, he has jumped from the opposition Parti Warisan to Umno and then to Chief Minister Hajiji Noor’s Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) before joining Mr Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat just days before the election campaign began.

The DAP, whose candidates are usually a shoo-in for the Chinese-majority seats they normally stand in, was wiped out instead in the recent election in Malaysia’s easternmost state. Thus, PH has now gone from being a key ally propping up the Hajiji administration to a junior player, after winning eight seats in Sabah in 2020.

Should the Sabah voter exodus — coming three years since the Anwar federal administration was installed in Putrajaya - extend nationwide at a general election due by early 2028, it would certainly end any chance of the PH chief winning a second term.