Verdict by ballot.

As the dust settled on the polling day of Sarawak State Election yesterday (16 April 2011, Saturday), electorates across Sarawak had made their decision by casting the ballot and choosing their desired representative as well as the government formed from the majority party in the upcoming 10th Sarawak State Assembly for the next five years term. As usual of an election, there are victors as well as losers but one thing is certain: democracy is at work. Hopefully those who emerge victorious in this election regardless of their affiliation will commit to whatever they had promised for the passed 10 days in their campaign while for those who faltered, deep soul-searching and self improvement is in due and hopefully able to pick up the pieces.

Since representative democracy is all about numbers, let's go through a few key numbers first. (Information courtesy of Wikipedia, undi.info and news portal whichever that's relevant.)

Sarawak State Assembly Building located right across Sarawak River facing Kuching City Centre, housing the upcoming 10th Sarawak State Assembly which will be the first full five year session for this building to be used as state legislature. Hmm, I wonder what's the fate for the old State Assembly Building.

Number of seats up for contest in the 10th Sarawak State Assembly: 71 seats.
Number of seats needed for any contesting party to achieve simple majority (half of the seats available) in the legislature thus forming responsible government: 36 seats.
Number of seats needed for any contesting party to achieve absolute majority (2/3 of all the seats available) in the legislature: 47 seats.

Numbers of eligible voters (as per the latest electoral roster up until 31 December 2011): 979,796 voters which can be broken down further to 961,433 ordinary voters and 18,363 postal voters.

Turnout (as in ballot paper distributed out): 682,854 voters (69.69%)
Valid vote: 672,667 voters (68.65% of total eligible voters)
Spoiled/Missing votes: 10,187 votes

Full results breakdown by party.

Sarawak Barisan Nasional (from left): PBB, SUPP, PRS and SPDP

Sarawak Barisan Nasional
Seat contested: 71 seats (PBB: 35, SUPP: 19, PRS:9 SPDP: 8)
Seat won: 55 seats or 77.46% of total seats (2/3 majority achieved) (PBB:35, SUPP: 6, PRS: 8, SPDP: 6)
Popular votes: 372,379 valid votes (55.36% of valid votes)

Pakatan Rakyat (from left): PKR, DAP and PAS.

Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat
Seat contested: 69 seats (PKR: 49, DAP: 15, PAS: 5)
Seats won: 15 seats (PKR: 3, DAP: 12, PAS: 0)
Popular votes: 261,666 valid votes (38.90% of valid votes)

Other parties (from left): SNAP and PCM.

Others
Seat contested, seats won and popular vote received.
SNAP: 26 (0) 15,663 votes (2.33% of popular votes)
PCM: 6 (0) 2895 votes (0.43 %)
Independent candidates: 41 (1) 20,064 votes (2.98%)

So there you have it. Sarawak Election in numbers. What can we infer from this election outcome? Let's start off with Pakatan Rakyat the unmistakably happiest lot in this election with notable breakthrough by doubling their seats in Sarawak State Assembly compared to last time (even though in my opinion certain lots among them seems to be overestimated about their chance of toppling BN and started spreading rumour around even before the actual result was announced. Bunch of "粪"青.). DAP with 12 victories out of 15 (mostly at urban but contested a couple of seats at mixed/rural area too.) contest and an astounding success rate of 80% are making an onslaught across urban seats riding on the widespread discontent of urban voters against BN. PKR while having little luck penetrating rural areas do manage to eke out 3 seats out of 49 contested in which two of its seat are rural area Krian and Ba'kelalan, thus chipping the once thought the impenetrable fortress for Barisan Nasional over rural seats, while another one is urban Kuching seat (Batu Lintang), a result of compromise from DAP. The victory of Baru Bian in Ba'kelalan is indeed the sweetest for Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat thus finally giving him the chance to voice out his key issues which is the enroachment of Native Customary Land by illegal loggers over the highland. PAS, the minor coalition partner in Sarawak PR had no luck breaking through the rural coastal area in which most of it are safely in the hand of Barisan Nasional.

Conversely for Sarawak Barisan Nasional, things are not as rosy as it seems even though Sarawak Barisan Nasional still manage to achieve the coveted 2/3 majority in the Sarawak State Assembly albeit with slightly reduced majority. In fact, any reduction in their absolute majority considering their stranglehold in the past should be taken seriously ahead of coming General Election as well as the next state election 5 years later. While PBB, the major coalition partner in Sarawak BN delivers stellar result with 35 seats, its minor coalition partner, SUPP, PRS and SPDP did lose some seats. SUPP with their traditional focus area over urban areas with a few mixed/rural seats had the worst brunt from onslaught of their archrival (since 1979), DAP with only 6 seats in which only two of them are urban seats (Bawang Assan and Senadin. Btw, Senadin has the lowest majority vote victory in this election, which SUPP barely scraping 58 majority votes over its opponent from PKR.) while the rest from their rural seats in southern Sarawak, thus relegating them into even minor presence in Sarawak Barisan Nasional. The most humiliating (but expected) lost of all was the fall of George Chan, Deputy Chief Minister and the long-time chairman of SUPP in Pujut to a DAP newcomer while all of the Kuching South Metropolitan area, the most populated urban area in Sarawak in the grip of DAP and PKR (Batu Lintang), all with increasing majority. With George Chan being ousted, it is certain that he will step down very soon and transfer the leadership to others. With such humiliating outcome, SUPP really need to do deep soul-searching to refocus their direction and function as well as carry out all the necessary steps to hasten the transition for the current aging leadership in order to remain relevant and in touch with their core focus area, the urban area. The other two minor coalition partner in BN namely PRS (which took a jab in the rib when they lost Pelagus to an (and the only successful) independent candidate in this election thus reminding them of Larry Sng conundrum.) and SPDP (who lost Ba'kelalan and shockingly for them, Krian in which PKR unseated the incumbent deputy minister.) do need to do their own effort as well to get in touch with their central and northern rural/highland electorate now that PKR is making some inroad.

Overall, what can we expect from the 10th Sarawak State Assembly? It's certain that this coming session will be even more rigourous with sharp verbal exchange between the government and opposition and DAP's propensity to kick a fuss over everything big or small. The appointment of the new state cabinet will be interesting as well now that SUPP has been relegated into even minor presence reducing their chances to lobby for ministership. Last but not least, will Taib Mahmud with his 30 years reign will finally step down within reasonable time frame as promised in the election and finally settling on a successor to lead Sarawak Barisan Nasional. Whatever that happens, exciting ahead indeed. Oh one last thing though: I still hate that certain Westies/Peninsularites/Malayans pundits regardless of affiliation seems to enjoy making patronizing comments over Sarawak with the latest one from Utusan. Seriously annoying westies: FUCK OFF. Read this properly and implant this into your head, patronizing asswipes.

Epilogue: Sunday. No achievement for today I guessed.