KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — Barisan Nasional (BN) is set for a clean sweep of all but the urban seats in the coming Sarawak election, a political analyst predicted today.
According to University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute director James Chin, this was largely due to the pull of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem, who replaced Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud.
“Adenan will win. He will win very big except in urban Chinese majority areas,” he told reporters after speaking at a Post GE-13 conference here.
Chin said that despite DAP pushing their “Impian Sarawak” campaign to win over voters there, the Bumiputera vote will still stay with BN.
“Even if there is infighting among the BN parties in Sarawak, they will all still be supporting Adenan,” he said.
Chin added that Datuk Seri Najib Razak has also been well received by Sarawakians, especially after recent concessions by the prime minister.
“Najib has agreed to certain demands from Sarawak in terms of autonomy. They will announce it before state election like the increased payment of royalty to Sarawak,” he added.
In the previous Sarawak state election in 2011, DAP made inroads into the state — primarily in the towns and cities — that was long considered a vote bank for BN.
The peninsular-based federal opposition party managed to take 12 seats, six more than the previous election, while ally PKR also added two more to its own tally.
The next Sarawak election is due no later than August 20, 2016.
