Almost ready: Election workers arranging ballot boxes and polling materials at Dewan Seri Pahlawan as preparations intensify ahead of the Sabah polls. A total of 198 ballot boxes have been allocated for the four state constituencies under the Tuaran district as officials work to ensure every centre meets specifications before polling begins. — ZULAZHAR SHEBLEE / The Star
Ceramah, townhall sessions in full swing in the last 24 hours
KOTA KINABALU: With just 24 hours before Sabah goes to the polls, the political coalitions are throwing everything they have at voters.
In keeping with the big names that are in the state for the final round of campaigning, mega ceramah are also being hosted.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who leads Pakatan Harapan which has a pact with Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), endured a packed schedule with six events.
Anwar, who arrived in the east coast district of Sandakan on Wednesday, continued with a meet-and-greet session with community leaders in Tuaran on the west coast yesterday, and later at Bandau in Kota Marudu.
By 3pm, he was at a restaurant in Inanam where a “PMX Townhall session with youths” was held, followed by a Harapan carnival in Petagas, a dinner with the Chinese community in Api-Api and a grand finale ceramah for Api-Api voters in Likas.
Pakatan also held a mega ceramah in Penampang for its Moyog candidate Remysta Jimmy Taylor which featured performances by local artiste Datuk Francis Landong.
Opposition leader and Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal kept to his pace of holding mega rallies in various zones, wrapping up his west coast campaign and pushing the call for Sabahans to stay united during a rally in Inanam in the state capital.
Shafie, whose party is contesting all 73 seats, is scheduled to make a final campaign sweep in his east coast home bases of Lahad Datu, Tawau and Semporna today.
“Multi-cornered fights may divide the field, but they must not divide the people of Sabah,” he said during a ceramah in Kelombong.
Barisan Nasional chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi also had a packed schedule in state seats under the Kimanis and Beaufort parliamentary constituencies.
Perikatan Nasional, meanwhile, brought in former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, along with Gerakan president Datuk Dominic Lau, PAS deputy president Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man for a mega ceramah in Telipok yesterday.
Maintaining the momentum in the final stretch before polling is crucial, says Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman assistant professor and policy analyst Liew Wui Chern.
“Endorsements from influential local figures can also shift perceptions quickly, particularly in rural Sabah,” he said.
Liew said the race is tight in urban mixed seats like Likas, Kapayan, Merotai and Balung because of multi-cornered fights, emerging local narratives, and unpredictable voter turnout due to the weather.
“Some seats like Luyang are seeing a new candidate, which may lower the (vote) margin,” he said.
In the Muslim bumiputra seats on the east coast, Liew said it is also a neck-and-neck race.
“Warisan has a strong network in places like Bugaya and Tunku, but the multi-cornered fights can split the Muslim vote,” he said.
Liew said the highest voter fragmentation is in seats like Tambunan, Liawan and Bingkor, all along the Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) belt of Tambunan, Keningau, Tenom and Pensiangan.
“There is no dominant KDM party there and candidates might heavily rely on clan influence and personal reputation,” he said.
Observers believe that GRS and Pakatan have a stronger machinery capable of swinging the undecided voters.
The strategic use of resources, they said, could potentially change political fortunes at the eleventh hour in marginal seats.
The Sabah election will see a contest between the separate alliances of GRS-Pakatan and Pakatan-Barisan against Warisan, and major locally-based native parties such as Sabah STAR led by Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, Upko led by Datuk Ewon Benedict and Parti KDM under acting president Priscella Peter, the daughter of jailed party president Datuk Peter Anthony.
