UMNO deputy president Mohamad Hassan has good reason to say Barisan Nasional was shortchanged by its partners in the Sabah elections last month.

After a more detailed scrutiny of the results, electoral analyst Ilham Centre found that BN lost eight of its seats directly to Perikatan Nasional and its allies.

On top of that, PBS spoilt BN’s chances in at least 12 seats in multi-cornered fights despite the party being part of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS).

Besides PBS, BN also suffered multi-cornered tussles in another seven seats – against STAR (3), independents (3) and Parti Cinta Sabah (one).

The loss of eight seats ensured BN would finish second best, with just 14 seats compared with PN’s 17 in GRS. Added to PBS’ seven and the three independents’ support, PN outnumbers BN 27-14 in the GRS coalition.

“BN was at a disadvantage against PN from the very beginning,” said Ilham Centre director Hisommudin Bakar.

“During seat negotiations, Umno gave up their better seats to Bersatu and after that, BN were saddled with contesting against Warisan Plus and the PN parties,” said the pollster.

He said BN’s problems were worsened by the “planned” 19 multi-cornered contests against candidates from PBS, STAR, PCS and independents.

Although PCS did not win any of the 73 seats it contested, PCS president Anifah Aman “stole” 3,598 votes, thus denying BN the Bongawan seat, said Hisommudin.

In Bongawan, Warisan won the seat with 5,400 votes against Umno’s 3,548 and PCS’ 3,598.

Ilham estimated that BN lost votes to PBS in at least 12 seats, STAR (3), independents (3) and PCS (1).

After the nominations on September 12, BN was slated to clash with PBS in as many as 17 seats.

Friendly fire

Among the eight seats it lost to PN parties, three went to PBS, two to STAR and three to independent candidates.

Although the Matunggong seat was given to BN component PBRS, PN component PBS also contested the seat.

As a result of the eight-cornered fight, PBRS only managed to win 2,859 votes compared with PBS’ 4,369, giving the PN ally a 1,510 majority.

Interestingly, the number of votes won by non-Warisan Plus parties – independents and other parties – totalled 2,268. PKR won 1,680 votes.

In Tandek, PBRS also lost out to PBS despite being given the seat during seat negotiations. In the final score, the PN ally won 3,796 votes compared to PBRS’ 1,520.

PBS’ clashes against BN were not restricted to PBRS, as it managed to snatch Umno’s Lumadan seat in the Sipitang parliamentary constituency.

In the final tally, Umno lost the seat by just 364 votes to PBS after finishing second best with 3,286 votes to the latter’s 3,650 votes.

The combination of small parties and independents again managed to win 769 votes ensuring BN could not retain the seat it won in 2018.

It is important to note that while PBS and STAR called for truce four days before polling in the Tambunan and Bingkor seats, none of the parties came to an agreement with BN.

The pattern was repeated in the Sook and Paginatan seats, where STAR defeated PBRS and Umno respectively.

Although PBS did not win Paginatan, its candidate, Arthur Sen, pried away 1,588 votes to leave Umno’s Jemadi Sahat with just 2,460 against STAR’s Abidin Madingkir (3,783).

As a result of that, Umno lost to the PN party by 1,323 votes.

Losing to independents, too

Besides losing to PBS and STAR, BN was also defeated by independents linked to PN.

Other than the Kuamut seat, which was retained by former Upko-turned independent Masiung Banah, BN lost the Pitas and Kemabong seats to independents Ruddy Awah and Rubin Balang respectively.

Though they contested as independents, Ruddy is a former Kudat PKR deputy chief who is aligned to Bersatu leader Mohamed Azmin Ali, while Rubin is the Tenom Bersatu chief.

All these three independents defeated Umno candidates.

Umno won in Sabah but lost the leadership. – October 8, 2020.