The 17th Sabah State Election

The 17th Sabah State Election was held on November 29, following the dissolution of the Sabah State Assembly on October 6.

The assembly comprised of 79 seats: 73 elected seats and six appointed state assemblymen.

There were 1,784,843 voters who were eligible to cast their ballots in the 2025 election.

On November 19, the Election Commission (EC) issued 22,881 postal ballot papers to eligible voters for the election.

Of these, 21,362 postal ballots fall under Category 1A, which includes election officers, EC members and staff, police personnel, military personnel, and media practitioners. A further 336 postal ballots were issued under Category 1B (Malaysian citizens living abroad), and 1,183 postal ballots under Category 1C (agencies and organisations).

Early voting on November 25 recorded a turnout of 91 percent, with 17,333 voters casting their ballots as of 3 pm.

The figure is notably higher than the early voting turnout in the 2020 State Election, which saw an early voting turnout of 56.45 percent, involving 11,781 voters at the same time.

This year, 24,426 voters were eligible for early voting, comprising 11,697 military personnel and their spouses and 12,729 police personnel and their spouses.

The 14-day campaign period ran from November 16 to 11.59pm on November 28.

On voting day, all 882 voting centres closed operations at 5.30pm.