By Political Analyst Bob Munang
KOTA KINABALU :To me the GE15 is a national election and the fight is really between Barisan Nasional (BN), Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Perikatan Nasional (PN)
GPS Sarawak is non-committal because they want to be on the safe side and hoping to play a kingmaker role. GPS is banking on their superb performance winning the Sarawak State Electionn with a super majority of 76 seats out of 82 seats! So they are very confident of achieving the 90% win bracket!
Sabah on the other hand is too politically divided. Rumours had it that Warisan is very confident of winning 20 seats! However, this may not be realistic. Remember in the last by-election in Sabah, UMNO won the Kimanis seat with over 2,029 votes majority over Warisan’s candidate.
In the Sabah State Election 2020, Warisan/PH/UPKO won 32 seats against GRS with 38 seats . The other 3 seats was won by BEBAS backed by UMNO and PPBM. I forsee a very tough contest between GRS, PH and Warisan. GRS may win the bulk of the seats because of their advantage as the State Govt. PH and Warisan may split their votes to GRS advantage.
Bob Munang
In Moyog, the contest between Ewon and Darrel is very close.
However Ewon may have an advantage this time because he is UPKO’s incoming President and many UPKO veterans in Penampang are backing Ewon.
The issue with Darrel is basically his failure to be on the grounds.
There is also a comment about Darrel not attributing his victory because he is a Kadazan leader. Essentially he wants to be regarded as a leader for all and not only to the Kadazans.
As for Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau, some Kiulu friends says his chances are good because the GE15 is about electing a Central Govt.
From information I gather from friends in rural areas, they said the MA63 and Borneo Bloc mantra is not an issue. It’s more of a bread and butter issues. So GRS being the government may do well.
In the urban and semi-urban areas where the Chinese forms the majority, the community are still strongly with DAP.
There are reports on the ground that Warisan’s Chinese candidates will lose badly this time. So overall, Warisan is likely to win in some of the traditional UMNO areas.
