Kota Kinabalu: A total of 981,814 Sabahans will go to the polls Sunday to elect a new state government, with local political analysts predicting a victory for the Barisan Nasional (BN). After 14 days of intense campaigning, the Sabah BN, led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman, who has been credited for excellent handling of the State's kitty, looks forward to triumph with a huge majority in the state legislative assembly as well as capturing most of the parliamentary seats at stake.
Although there is keen tussle in some parliamentary and state seats in this election, it is not impossible for BN to repeat its overwhelming performance as in the last general election.
In the 2008 general election, Sabah BN lost only one parliamentary (Kota Kinabalu) and a State seat (Sri Tanjung), respectively.
This time around, keen tussle are seen im Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Kota Belud, Tuaran, Beaufort, Tawau and Pensiangan parliamentary seats as they are locked in multi-cornered fights, especially with Pakatan Rakyat hopefuls.
BN candidate for the Kota Kinabalu parliamentary seat Chin Tek Ming is facing an uphill task to wrest the urban seat from DAP. Tek Ming is facing a three-cornered fight with DAP's Wong Sze Phin and State Reform Party's (Star) Michael Liew King Leong.
In the 2008 general election, DAP's Hiew King Chiew won the seat by a slim 106-vote majority.
Sandakan is locked in a straight fight between BN aspirant Datuk Liew Vui Keong and DAP's Wong Tien Fatt. In the last general election, Liew won the seat by a 176-vote majority.
BN contestant for the Kota Belud parliamentary seat, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, is squaring off with four opponents from PKR, Star and two independents.
BN won the seat in the 2008 election by a comfortable 3,020-vote majority.
For the Tuaran seat, BN's Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau is pitted against incumbent Datuk Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing, a former BN Member of Parliament who is now defending the seat under PKR ticket, and two other opponents from Star and an independent.
The Beaufort seat will be a litmus test for the incumbent, Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin, who abandoned BN and now defending the seat under PKR ticket, while the BN candidate is Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun.
Another keenly contested parliamentary seat is Tawau. In the 2008 general election, the seat was won by the then BN hopeful, Datuk Dr Chua Soon Bui, but the incumbent is now vying under SAPP ticket against BN's Yap Kain Ching @ Mary Yap Ken Jin.
The Pensiangan parliamentary seat is also seeing an interesting four-way fight, with incumbent, Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, who is also PBRS president, winning the seat uncontested in 2008.
There will also be a keen tussle in Papar where incumbent and BN candidate, Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin, who is locking horns with three contenders - PKR's Datuk Haji Yahya Lampong and Star's Balon Mujim.
For the state seats, the BN is banking on the people's confidence in its policies to retain Likas, Api-Api, Klias, Kuala Penyu, Bingkor and Merotai seats while the Sri Tanjung seat, which was won by DAP in the last general election, is likely to remain with the opposition party.
Likas and Api-Api are closely-contested seats though BN retained them in the last general election by a majority of 862 and 174 votes, respectively.
Although the Bingkor seat is seeing a four-way tussle, the fight will be between BN's newcomer, Kennedy Jie John @ Kenn, and STAR Sabah chapter president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.
Meanwhile, a local political analyst, Salman Nurillah predicted that BN would likely win more than 50 state seats out of 60 and 20 parliamentary seats out of 25 at stake.
