Sabah state election, 2013

The elections to the state parliament in Sabah (English Sabah State Elections ) took place on May 5, 2013. The voters chose here the Legislative Assembly of the Malaysian state of Sabah, which is called the Dewan Negeri Sabah Undangan (DUN ) or Sabah State Legislative Assembly.

The elections were held for the elections to the National Assembly ( Dewan Rakyat ), the Parliament of Malaysia, as well as the elections to national parliaments in eleven other states at the same time.

The state constitution of Sabah provides for a term of five years. Then the Yang di - Pertua Parliament of Negeri Sabah to the proposal of the Prime Minister of Sabah must be resolved. The elections will be held as a simple majority vote under the supervision of the Malaysian Election Commission ( Election Commission of Malaysia ).

The deputies of the coalition government of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak emerged victorious from the elections to the state parliament. They reached 48 out of 60 seats in the Legislative Assembly and with 80 % of the seats in the possession of absolute majority.

Dissolution of Parliament

The dissolution of Parliament took place on April 3, 2013 by the Chief Minister of Sabah, Musa Aman, shortly after the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Tun Razak, had dissolved the Malaysian Parliament. According to the Constitution had in the state of Sabah, the elections take place within 60 days, ie between April 3 and June 2, 2013. Traditionally held both elections on the same day.

Setting the election date

The Malaysian Election Commission ( Election Commission of Malaysia ) announced on April 10, 2013, that the nomination of candidates for election will be held on April 20 and was that set as the election date May 5, 2013. Early voting (early voting ) was available from 30 April. The official campaign began on April 20 and lasted 15 days. Voters Malaysians abroad were able to vote on April 28 by absentee ballot in their official representatives. The embassies and consulates opened for this purpose nine clock in the morning to 6 clock in the evening. In London and Melbourne, the country representatives of Malaysia were open even to 8 clock in the evening, as there are registered more than 1,000 voters letter.

Voters

For the 60 constituencies total of 981 814 voters were registered. This number already included the voters for early voting (early voting). The early voting involved 9,423 military personnel and 8,958 members of the police forces and 59 voters living abroad.

Electioneering

For the 60 seats in the state parliament of Sabah who applied a total of 263 candidates. In the last elections in 2008 the figure was 200 candidates.

In order to stand for election in the electoral districts of Sabah 25 seats in the Malaysian Parliament has 95 candidates applied against 70 in 2008.

Electoral management

Of the total of 400 million ringgit [note 2], which provided the Electoral Commission to conduct the nationwide elections for the 13th Malaysian Parliament and the parliaments of countries available, flowed 52 million ringgit [note 3] to Sabah. For the proper conduct of the election in Sabah were 17,615 poll workers available.

Innovations

The change in the Malaysian electoral law from 2012 also resulted in the elections for the State Parliament changes: [note 4]

• Before the vote, the left forefinger of the voter is marked by non- washable paint.
• Members of the military and the police can take a early voting.
• Disabled are allowed to take a person of their confidence in the voting booth.
• Nominations for election can be neither withdrawn nor challenged.

Election observers

To ensure the democratic conduct of elections, international and national election observers were allowed for the elections. As an independent national election observers, three local NGOs were named for Sabah, the Sabah branch of the Malaysian Historical Society, the Sabah Youth Council and the Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah.

Election result

Of the 60 seats in the Legislative Assembly accounted for 48 seats among the MPs of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional and 11 seats to the opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat. A seat was accounted for by the Reform Party Parti Reformasi Negeri. Thus, the deputies of the coalition government of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak emerged victorious from the elections to the state parliament. They reached 80 % of the seats, the absolute majority.