KUCHING: Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) will be the main challenger to Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) in Iban areas in the next election, predicts Dr Arnold Puyok.
The Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSSH) deputy dean based this on the share of popular votes in Iban areas in the 12th state election.
He said in the Iban areas, even though PRS had managed to increase their share of popular votes compared to the previous state election in 2016, they had a new challenger in the form of PSB.
Meanwhile, in terms of the share of popular votes in Chinese areas, he noted that there was a significant increase in the number of popular votes obtained by Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) in the state polls compared to 2016 while Democratic Action Party (DAP) experienced a significant decrease.
“But when we talk about the swing of the Chinese votes, the swing did not only go to SUPP. The swing also went to PSB and Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK).
“So a lot of people are of the opinion that in the coming election, the popular support among the Chinese would not go only to SUPP but also to PBK and PSB,” he said during the ‘2021 Sarawak State Election: Outcomes and Implications’ online seminar organised by FSSH UNIMAS on Wednesday (Feb 9).
Arnold said one of the interesting outcomes of the state election was the emergence of PSB and PBK, as these parties had managed to weaken Pakatan Harapan (PH) in terms of popular support.
He pointed out that PH’s popular votes had reduced from 30.1 per cent in the 2016 state election to 10.4 per cent in the recent state polls.
Speaking of the election results by ethnic majority, he said GPS managed to repeat its 2016 performance in the Malay/Melanau areas by winning 28 seats.
He said GPS also managed to maintain its dominance in Iban-majority areas by securing 21 seats, as well as in Bidayuh- and Orang Ulu-majority seats by again securing seven and four seats respectively.
He said in the Chinese-majority areas, DAP did not manage to maintain its popularity whereas GPS managed to increase its seats from seven to 11.
He added that similar to the 2016 state election, GPS secured five mixed-majority seats.
In terms of popular votes, he said the GPS component parties managed to increase their share of popular votes whereas DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) experienced a substantial reduction in terms of popular votes obtained.
He said out of all 82 seats GPS contested, 28 were competitive while 54 were either GPS-safe or GPS-leaning, whereby in GPS-leaning seats, the opposition had chances to reduce GPS’ winning majorities by playing up issues.
“The state election was considered an extraordinary election as it was held amid the Covid-19 pandemic with standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place. It was also a maintaining election, to formally endorse GPS to govern for the next five years,” said Arnold.
He said it was a closely watched election as people were curious about PSB and wanted to see if PSB and PBK would be strong contenders to GPS.
