After series of humiliating defeats, Umno’s last fight for life in Sabah polls
The upcoming elections in Sabah put Umno in a life-or-death situation, says a state party leader who sees it as the last chance to stay alive in the peninsula after the party suffered painful losses twice in the 2022 general elections and the four-state elections last year.
(MalaysiaNow) – The focus is now on how the party, which won only 19 out of 108 seats in Selangor, Penang, Kelantan and Terengganu, can return to power in Sabah, once its stronghold under then chief minister Musa Aman.
Sabah must hold state elections by Dec 9 next year.
A senior Sabah politician said Umno’s performance in the 73 states will have an impact on the party’s strength at the federal level.
Infighting
However, a keen observer of Sabah politics does not believe that the party’s performance in the state elections will have any impact on Umno in the peninsula.
Lee Kuok Tiung, however, believes that the elections will not go in Umno’s favour this time due to internal disputes.
“We expect voters to express their protest to Sabah Umno. They are Umno voters who will vote for other parties to show their dissatisfaction with leaders like Bung Moktar Radin and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,” said Lee of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, referring to the Sabah Umno chairman and party president.
He was referring to the divisions in Umno, when its assemblymen supported Gabungan Rakyat Sabah chairman Hajiji Noor, and Bung’s decision to pull Umno out of the state government.
There is also the possibility of Sabah Umno joining forces with Warisan, the party that toppled Umno in 2018.
Lee said given Warisan and its chairman Shafie Apdal’s past, joining forces with Umno would only give GRS an advantage.
“It is a new challenge that we will see this time in the elections, which I believe will only benefit GRS because it is the strongest party in Sabah,” he added.
In the 2020 state elections, Umno won 14 of the 33 seats it contested.
Two years later, in the general election, Umno won six of the 11 parliamentary seats it contested.
It is now hoping to win at least 23 seats in the state assembly, less than the 15 seats it needs to form the state government on its own.
If successful, this would be a shot in the arm for Umno in the peninsula, which still shows no signs of overcoming its heavy electoral defeats since 2022.
