KUCHING: The upcoming Sabah election will not affect the 12th Sarawak election because the political scenarios in the two states are completely different, said Communication Department, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) associate professor Dr Lee Kuok Tiung.
He said the environment and political set up in Sabah was different from Sarawak, and it was impossible to copy paste Sabah political model in Sarawak.
“Looking at the situation, it should be Sarawak that is going to hold its state election first, but due to Sabah’s political turmoil, it seems that Sabah has stolen the spotlight,” he told Suara Sarawak when asked whether the Sabah election would influence the 12th state election.
On July 30, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal announced the dissolution of the State Legislative Assembly after former chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman claimed that he had the numbers to form a new state government.
When asked if Sabah election could influence Sarawak to hold its state polls, he said, “Perhaps, there can only be two things which can be used as lessons or examples for the Sarawak state election later.”
He said these are the cooperation among party components and the emergence of social media as an election campaign channel.
“Such cooperation has become commonplace in politics where it has been successful in organising a one-on-one contests.
“And social media as a campaign channel is not something new but in the context of this new era let alone with concerns over the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is expected to be more widely used throughout this campaign,” he said.
Therefore, he said any party that has more organised preparedness in this chapter will have an advantage.
Asked on who has the potential to win between Shafie and Musa, he said at this stage both sides could have the same chance in winning in the upcoming election.
“Both sides will definitely try to play the issues that they are the victims of the situation in order to win sympathy votes.
“The narrative they use during the election campaign will show who has more potential to win,” he said.
