By Remy Majangkim
KOTA KINABALU: Good day to everyone. Today, let us examine the performance of Warisan in the 2020 state election.
After winning the 2018 State Election, coinciding with the Malaysian General Election, the country faced a constitutional crisis due to a coup in the Federal Government.
This led to a backdoor government under Perikatan Nasional (PN) and COVID worldwide lockdown.
While in Sabah, the Sabah State government was held hostage by the betrayal of its own ADUN (Assemblyman), which left the then Chief Minister with no choice but to dissolve the State Assembly on July 30, 2020, and set the election date for September 26, 2020.
So how does Warisan perform under such pressure? The main difference was that in this election there are 73 seats up for grabs compared to 2018. So let us look at the results.
Warisan won 23 seats.
UMNO Won 14 Seats
BERSATU won 11 seats.
PBS Won 7 Seats
STAR Won 6 Seats
DAP Won 6 Seats
PKR Won 2 Seats
UPKO Won 1 Seat
Independent Won 3 Seats
UMNO, BERSATU, PBS, and STAR are part of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), but it is not a registered political party. Warisan Plus includes DAP, PKR, and UPKO also in the same position.
Therefore, in this context, these alliances must be treated as such, individually.
The unregistered alliance (GRS) won a total of 38 out of 73 seats. However, the Sabah State Constitution, under Article 6(7), restricts the appointment of the Chief Minister to members of the legislative body who are leaders of a political party that has won a majority of the seats.
It is important to note the use of the word “a”, as it signifies that only one political party, rather than multiple parties or “the party”, is eligible for this position.
The term “majority” does not necessarily mean over 50%. In the linguistic context, ordinary English words have their meanings. The lexical definition of “majority” refers to a greater number.
According to the election results and Sabah constitutional framework, which political party secured the most single seats in the 2020 Sabah State Election? The answer is Warisan.
The pressing question at hand is whether Warisan can withstand yet another intense “pressure test” as it prepares for the forthcoming Sabah State election.
Warisan is going solo against everyone, including former allies and new political parties.
This will be an interesting election not only for Sabah but also for the public mandate on Pakatan Harapan 2.0 so far.
