Kitingan said the close to 300,000 Sabahans living, working or studying in West Malaysia were likely to skip the polls because of the costly return fares.

A return flight to Sabah can cost between RM700 and RM1,000, he said, while AirAsia’s promotional one-way fare of RM299 for the state election only covered 4,300 tickets.

“If we want fair polls, we must allow Sabahans in the peninsula to vote easily. It’s not hard,” Kitingan, who is also the Keningau MP, told the Dewan Rakyat during the 2026 budget debate today.

He pointed out that Sabah-based West Malaysians were allowed to cast postal ballots, but peninsula-based Sabahans were not accorded the same privilege.

His remarks come days after Bersih and a group of civil societies proposed measures for the Election Commission to expand postal voting for out-of-state Sabahans.

The group said the EC has the powers to declare new categories of individuals to be eligible postal voters.

The 17th Sabah polls will be held on Nov 29, with nomination day set for Nov 15, and early voting on Nov 25.