SHAH ALAM, 30 Mar: Pakatan Rakyat will govern Sabah after the upcoming elections if the coalition wins 35 state legislative assembly seats.
The ‘land below the wind’ will also contribute 15 parliamentary chairs to PR to further strengthen the coalition’s opportunity in achieving 112 parliamentary seats to be able to govern Putrajaya.
The prediction was made by Beaufort Member of Parliament, Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin, who said that he is basing this on a political sentiment survey by Sabahans and the growth of PR branches in Sabah.
He said that the waves of change in support from Umno-BN to PR is most powerful among the Chinese community in Sabah, where an estimated eight out of 10 Chinese majority seats will be won by PR.
Meanwhile, 15 out of 20 Kadasan Dusun-Murut majority seats will also be won by PR, said Lajib, who is the former Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government.
Among the Bumiputera Muslim seats, Lajim said that 13 to 15 seats may be won by PR.
“When we establish PKR and PAS branches, we conduct a study and also an election trial and the results are very encouraging.
“We found that we can win 35 seats and it may even be 40 seats.
“The people of Sabah are familiar with the changing of the State Government.
“Throughout history, the State Government has changed three times. The experience of changing governments is already there,” he said at a press conference after a social event with the people of Sabah in Selangor with the Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.
Previously, the administration power in Sabah changed hands in April 1985 from BN to the Sabah United Party (PBS).
It then returned to BN in 1986. In the 1990 elections, PBS managed to snatch back the reins of administration.
However, in the 1994 March elections, Sabah fell back into the hands of BN.
“Whatever has been done by BN today has hurt the people of Sabah, who have not guaranteed security, development, progress and they are so behind compared to the people on the Peninsular,” Lajim said.