1999 Sabah state election

1999 Sabah state election

12–13 March 1999
All 48 seats in the Sabah State Legislative Assembly 25 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Osu Sukam Joseph Pairin Kitingan Party UMNO PBS Alliance Barisan Nasional Leader since 1996 1985 Leader's seat Kawang Tambunan Last election 23 25 seats Seats won 31 17 Seat change 8 8
Chief Minister before election Bernard Giluk Dompok BN-PDS Elected Chief Minister Osu Sukam BN-UMNO

The 1999 Sabah state election was held between Friday, 12 March and Saturday, 13 March 1999. The election was won by Barisan Nasional increasing the number of seats it won in the 1994 election from 23 to 31.

Results

Party or alliance				Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	24	+5
			Sabah Progressive Party	3	0
			Liberal Democratic Party	2	+1
			Sabah Democratic Party	2	New
			Malaysian Chinese Association	0	New
			Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah	0	New
			Angkatan Keadilan Rakyat Bersatu	0	New
		Total		31	+6
	United Sabah Party			17	-8
	Federated Sabah People's Front			0	New
	United Democratic Sabah People's Power Party			0	New
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			0	0
	United Pasok Nunukragang National Organisation			0	0
	Independents			0	0
Total				48	0

Aftermath

CM rotation system

See also: Chief Minister of Sabah § Rotation system: 1994–2004

After BN regains power in Sabah in 1994, it introduced Chief Minister rotation system between Muslim bumiputera, Non-Muslim bumiputera, and Chinese leaders for two year tenure each. This was one of the promises of BN during the 1994 election campaign. For the Muslim bumiputera quota, Osu Sukam of UMNO becomes CM after BN won in the 1999 elections. He held the role until 2001, when Chong Kah Kiat of LDP becomes CM, filling the Chinese/Non-Muslim bumiputera quota in a slightly changed rotation system. In 2003, Kah Kiat hands over the CM role to Musa Aman from UMNO, who scrapped the rotation system after BN dominates in the 2004 state election, with 59 wins out of 60 seats contested.

PBS rejoins BN

After PBS failed to wrestle control of the state from BN, PBS central committee decided on 2001 to apply for re-entry into BN, and was officially accepted back into BN on 23 January 2002. This contributed to the near-domination of BN in the 2004 election as stated above.

As of 2023, this is the last election PBS was considered as a major party in Sabah, as afterwards PBS only exists as a coalition partner for other parties.