2008 Sabah state election

The 2008 Sabah state election was held on Saturday, 8 March 2008, simultaneously with the 12th general election of Malaysia. 60 state assembly seats were contested. The election was won by the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition with a similar number of seats won as in the previous election, where they won 59 seats. One seat was won by Democratic Action Party (DAP). In the previous election, BN won 59 seats, while one seat was won by an independent candidate. Other parties contesting in this election are Democratic Action Party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat, BERSEKUTU, Pasok, Setia, and 47 independent candidates. The 25 parliamentary seats were also contested the same time. This is the second time the state election of Sabah is held simultaneously with the general (parliamentary) elections, the first time being in the 2004 general elections.

2008 Sabah state election

8 March 2008
All 60 seats in the Sabah State Legislative Assembly 31 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Musa Aman Hiew King Chew Party UMNO DAP Alliance Barisan Nasional Leader since 1996 Leader's seat Sungai Sibuga Not contesting Last election 59 0 Seats won 59 1 Seat change 1
Chief Minister before election Musa Aman BN-UMNO Elected Chief Minister Musa Aman BN-UMNO

Map of Sabah electoral districts. Parliamentary districts are denoted by "P", while state assembly districts are denoted by "N".

The State Legislative Assembly was dissolved on 13 February 2008, after state Chief Minister Musa Aman obtained consent from the Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Ahmadshah Abdullah. The nomination day was held on 24 February 2008. On this day, Ramlee Marbahan of BN won the seat of N.54 Bugaya unopposed. Barisan Nasional also won two parliamentary seats on nomination day.

On 27 February 2008, the PKR candidate Mohaspa Mohd Hassan pulled out of the election, thus awarding the N.41 Gum Gum seat to Zakaria Mohd Edris.

Results

Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	180,170	34.21	32	0
			United Sabah Party	68,221	12.95	12	–1
			United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation	28,191	5.35	6	+1
			Sabah Progressive Party	27,230	5.17	4	0
			Liberal Democratic Party	11,800	2.24	3	0
			Malaysian Chinese Association	6,162	1.17	1	0
			Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah	5,496	1.04	1	0
		Total		327,270	62.14	59	0
	Pakatan Rakyat		People's Justice Party	137,576	26.12	0	0
			Democratic Action Party	25,937	4.92	1	+1
			Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party	1,007	0.19	0	0
		Total		164,520	31.24	1	1
	Federated Sabah People's Front			5,095	0.97	0	0
	Independents			29,774	5.65	0	–1
Total				526,659	100.00	60	0
Valid votes				526,659	97.41
Invalid/blank votes				13,998	2.59
Total votes				540,657	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				807,862	66.92
Source: The Star

Parties representing Barisan Nasional

Allocation of seats among parties within the ruling BN coalition is as follows. This formula was used in the 2004 election and has been retained for this election.

Barisan Nasional coalition
Party	Seats contested	Seats won
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)	3	3
Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA)	1	1
Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS)	1	1
Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS)	13	12
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP)	4	4
United Malays National Organisation (UMNO)	32	32
United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO)	6	6

Parliamentary seats

Main article: 2008 Malaysian general election

The parliamentary election was held simultaneously nationwide with the state elections of all Malaysian states except Sarawak. Barisan Nasional had won two seats unopposed on nomination day itself—the P.182 Pensiangan seat by Joseph Kurup, and P.191 Kalabakan by Ghapur Salleh. The following is a summary of results for parliamentary seats in Sabah:

Sabah parliamentary election, 2008
Party	Votes	Seats won (seats contested)
Barisan Nasional		24 (25)
BERSEKUTU		0 (2)
Democratic Action Party		1 (5)
Parti Keadilan Rakyat		0 (20)
PAS		0 (1)
Pasok		0 (3)
Independent		0 (16)
Total		25