1969 Sarawak state election

10 May 1969 – 7 June 1969 (suspended due to 13 May incident) 6 June 1970 – 4 July 1970
All 48 seats in the Council Negri 25 seats needed for a majority
Registered	332,373
Turnout	265,898 (80%)
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Abdul Rahman Ya'kub Ong Kee Hui Stephen Kalong Ningkan Party Alliance SUPP SNAP Leader since unknown 1959 1961 Leader's seat Kuala Rajang not contesting Layar Last election N/A N/A N/A Seats before N/A N/A N/A Seats won 15 12 12 Seat change – – – Popular vote 63,668 72,178 61,241 Percentage 25.4% 28.8% 24.4% Swing – – –
Chief Minister before election Tawi Sli Alliance Subsequent chief minister Abdul Rahman Ya'kub Alliance

The first Sarawak state election was held from Saturday, 10 May 1969 and scheduled to be completed on Saturday, 7 June 1969 which lasted for 4 weeks and was carried out in staggered basis. This was due to the lack of transportation and communication systems in the state at that time. The state election was held at the same time as the 1969 general election. The Dewan Rakyat of the Malaysian Parliament and all the state assemblies were dissolved on 20 March 1969, except for Kelantan (which dissolved later on 31 March) and Sabah (which were not up for election as it had held its state election in 1967). The nomination date was set on Saturday, 5 April 1969. However, because of the riot occurred during 13 May incident and the declaration of emergency and the promulgation of Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance No. 1 of 1969 on 15 May 1969, all the ongoing polls were suspended until 1970. During when the suspension was enforced, polling in 9 out of 48 constituencies in Sarawak had started. None of the elections in Sarawak was completed at that time.^[1]

Background

Prior to 1969 election, a political party was suspended from contesting in general election. The political party later mounted a public campaign calling the voters to boycott the election. The Sarawak parliamentary and state election was resumed from Saturday, 6 June 1970 to Saturday, 4 July 1970. During the resumption of the election, there was a tragedy in Sarikei in the third division of Sarawak on 29 June 1970. The communist terrorists had killed three election officials on their return journey after completing polling at a station. There was also an incident were a land mine was exploded outside the polling station in the same division.^[1]

This election saw 332,373 eligible voters after the first registration in Sarawak.^[1] Of these eligible voters, 26% were the Malays, 28 were the Chinese, and 46 percent were from Dayaks.^[2] The turn up rate of voters was 80.0%, which was considered high as compared to other states in Malaysia. A total of 221 candidates were contesting for 48 state seats in Sarawak. The breakdown of number of seats were:^[1]

• 33 seats were contested by Sarawak Alliance (Perikatan Sarawak in Malay). It was made up of Parti Bumiputera Sarawak (BUMIPUTERA) and Sarawak Chinese Association (SCA)
• 40 seats by Sarawak United Peoples' Party (SUPP)
• 35 seats by Parti Pesaka Sarawak (Pesaka)
• 47 seats by Sarawak National Party (SNAP)

There were 66 independent candidates vying for the seats.^[1]

Results

Aftermath

The prime minister of Malaysia, Tun Abdul Razak invited SUPP to join the Sarawak Alliance a month before the election to form a coalition government as SNAP previously did not have a good relationship with the federal government. SUPP eventually followed the federal preferences to form a coalition government with Parti Bumiputera. This enables the coalition to secure a total of 27 out of 48 seats in the Sarawak Council Negri (now Sarawak State Legislative Assembly). SUPP joined the coalition government as an equal partner with Parti Bumiputera, where both parties signed a letter of understanding on the composition of the new Sarawak government cabinet. Abdul Rahman Ya'kub (Parti Bumiputera) was nominated as chief minister with Stephen Yong (SUPP) and Simon Demak Maja (PESAKA) as deputy chief ministers. SCA was excluded from the Sarawak cabinet positions after the elections.^[3]

See also

• 1969 Malaysian general election

References