Sabah has a democratic political system with universal suffrage. A general election for State and Federal level officials is held every five years.
The present elected State and Federal Government posts are held by Barisan Nasional, a coalition of major ethnic parties, including UMNO, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) & Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS). The state parliament meets at the state capital, Kota Kinabalu.
The last state election was in 2004. As of 2006, the state legislature has 60 members. It comprises of 59 Barisan Nasional State Legislature Members (Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri) and a single independent. Of this, 32 are from UMNO, 13 from Parti Bersatu Sabah. 5 from United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation, 4 from the Sabah Progressive Party, 3 from the Liberal Democratic Party(Malaysia), and one each from MCA and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah. List of State Legislature Members
A bizarre feature of Sabah politics was a policy initiated by the Barisan Nasional in 1994: the Chief Minister's post is rotated among the coalition parties every 2 years, regardless of the party in power at the time, thus theoretically giving an equal amount of time for each major ethnic group to rule the State. This serves to extremely weaken the executive branch of the State government, which was formerly much at odds with the federal government in Kuala Lumpur. It also serves to give a disproportionate power to the indigenous Muslim Bajau ethnic group, at the expense of the mainly Christian indigenous Kadazan-Dusun, the largest ethnic group. This practice has since stopped with power now held by majority in the state assembly by the UMNO party, which also holds a majority in the national Parliament.
There have been conspiracy theory that the Chief Minister post rotation system was implemented to allow UMNO to control the post permanently by abolishing the whole system once It was UMNO turn to hold the post. It has never been proven but it is considered impossible for UMNO to get a hold of the post through any other method. The conspiracy theory was brought up once again when a division from UMNO proposed to implement the same rotation system in Penang, the only other state that is not controlled by UMNO but under BN. The proposal was raised even though UMNO abolished the system in Sabah by declaring it a failure.
UMNO had a quick rise to power since its entry into Sabah in 1991 where before that both eastern Malaysian states were not penetrated by the party, whose president is the de facto leader of the ruling coalition BN and automatically the Prime Minister of Malaysia. This has given rise to dissent as the Chief Minister rotation system was halted just as UMNO was holding the post. Thus the 2004 general elections saw widespread disillusionment, coupled with an ineffectual opposition. The state assembly is now dominated by the ruling party BN with only one seat held by an opposition politician who is an independent candidate. This was caused by a general sentiment where a number of voters were reluctant to cast votes for BN whose victory was almost assured but did not trust the opposition parties, most of which were not vigorously active before the election. Therefore many cast votes for independent candidates.
Sabah politics ,as are Malaysia's is very much based upon party lines. An effort by PBS, a component party of BN, to hatch a co-operation with the one opposition candidate within the state assembly ,whom conversely was a former UMNO member competing independently because he was not nominated for the constituency by his party, in an unprecedented attempt at bipartisanship, was harshly criticized by UPKO, another component party of BN.
Sabah entered Malaysia as an autonomous state with a Christian Kadazan-Dusun chief minister, but soon succumbed to Kuala Lumpur's vision of a one-party unitary Islamic state dominated by the indigenous Muslim Bajau and Brunei people. This has created considerable friction and even occasional calls for secession. These tensions are further inflamed by Kuala Lumpur's colonial mentality towards Sabah, wherein 95% of the profits from Sabah's immense natural resources are taken by the federal government, leaving the state government with only 5%. Aside from nominally separate immigration controls, little evidence remains of Sabah's theoretical autonomy.
Year Party Chief Minister
1963-1964 United National Kadazan Org (UNKO) Datuk Donald Stephens
1965-1967 Sabah Chinese Association (SCA) Datuk Peter Lo Sui Yin
1967-1975 USNO Tun Datu Haji Mustapha Datu Harun
1975-1976 USNO Tun Datuk Hj. Mohd. Said Bin Keruak
1976 (44 days) Berjaya Tun Datuk Haji Mohd Fuad Stephens
1976-1985 Berjaya Datuk Amar Harris Bin Mohd Salleh
1985-1994 Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan
1994-1995 Barisan Nasional (BN) Tun Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Sakaran Bin Dandai
1995-1996 Barisan Nasional(BN) Datuk Mohd Salleh Tun Mohd Said
1996-1998 Sabah Progressive Party(SAPP) Datuk Yong Teck Lee
1998 Parti Demokratik Sabah (PDS) Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Bernard Dompok
1999 Barisan Nasional (BN) Datuk Seri Panglima Osu Bin HJ. Sukam
2001 Barisan Nasional (BN) Tan Sri Datuk Chong Kah Kiat
2003 Barisan Nasional (BN) Datuk Seri Hj. Musa Bin Hj. Aman