1985 Sabah state election

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1985 Sabah state election
← 1981 20–21 April 1985 1986 →
← outgoing members
elected members →
All 48 seats of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly
25 seats needed for a majority
  Majority party Minority party Third party
  Penampang Sabah Joseph-Pairin-Kitingan-02.jpg Mustapha Harun.jpg
Leader Joseph Pairin Kitingan Mustapha Harun Harris Salleh
Party PBS USNO BERJAYA
Alliance Barisan Nasional Barisan Nasional
Leader since 1984 1961 1976
Leader's seat Tambunan Banggi Tenom
Last election Not contested 3 seats 44 seats, 60.2%
Seats before 3 44
Seats won 25 16 20
Seat change Increase25 Increase13 Decrease37
Popular vote 100,486 74,050 84,194
Percentage 36.44% 26.85% 30.53%
Chief Minister before election

Harris Salleh
Barisan Nasional, (BERJAYA)

Elected Chief Minister

Joseph Pairin Kitingan
PBS

The 1985 Sabah state election was held between Saturday, 20 April and Sunday, 21 April 1985. This was the fifth state election to take place. Parti Bersatu Sabah won 25 out 48 seats contested, thus forming government with its president Joseph Pairin Kitingan being sworn in as Chief Minister. This election is a milestone in Sabah political history as it marked the first time that a party not part of the nation's ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) formed government.[1] PBS took control of the state from the previous ruling government under Parti Berjaya—a partner of BN, which has been in power since 1976.

Summary[]

Summary of the 20 – 21 April 1985 Sabah State Legislative Assembly election results
Party Candidates Vote Seats
Votes % Won % +/–
United Sabah Party PBS 45 101908 25 52.08 New
United Sabah National Organisation USNO 43 71457 16 33.33 +13
Sabah People's United Front BERJAYA 48 84194 6 12.50 -38
United Pasok Nunukragang National Organisation PASOK 9 5739 1 2.08 +1
BERSEPADU 27 3490 0 0.00 New
BERSIH 7 2995 0 0.00 New
Democratic Action Party DAP 3 2303 0 0.00 0
Independent (politician) IND 19 1140 0 0.00 0
Valid votes
Invalid/blank votes
Total votes (voter turnout: %)   100.00 48 100.00 0
Did not vote
Registered voters  
Voting age population (aged 21 years and above)  
Sabah's population  

Source:

The aftermath[]

See also: 1986 Sabah riots

Pairin, himself a former member of Party Berjaya, formed PBS barely 47 days before the elections.[1] Opponents of PBS, namely, Harris Salleh of Berjaya, and Tun Mustapha of USNO were dissatisfied with the result. Tun Mustapha then sought to get sworn in as Chief Minister illegally,[2] and this resulted in a court battle which ended in favour of Pairin.[3][4]

The election resulted in riots around Sabah between March and May 1986. Bombings occurred in Kota Kinabalu, and arson in other towns. The rioters were trying to bring down Pairin from being the head of the state government.

In 1986 itself, another election was announced following defections by PBS assemblymen to USNO. PBS won again, this time with a two-thirds majority.[5] PBS joined the Barisan Nasional coalition after this election, but later left the coalition in 1990.

References[]

  1. ^ a b K. Ramanathan Kalimuthu (1986). "The Sabah State Elections of April 1985". Asian Survey. Asian Survey, Vol. 26, No. 7. 26 (7): 815–837. doi:10.2307/2644213. JSTOR 2644213.
  2. ^ Kalimullah Hassan (18 November 2007). "OPINION: Reforms yes, but not through violence in the streets". New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 21 December 2007. Retrieved 18 January 2008.
  3. ^ Crossette, Barbara (1 October 1987). "Kota Kinabalu Journal; With Houses on Stilts and Hopes in Another Land". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 January 2007.
  4. ^ "Historical Background". Parti Bersatu Sabah. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2008.
  5. ^ "Is snap polls the answer?". The Star. 22 June 2008. Archived from the original on 8 May 2009. Retrieved 2 February 2009.
Retrieved from ""