The party held its ground in the east coast of Sabah and also made inroads on the west coast, winning a total of 25 seats.

This marked major gains for the local party spearheaded by former chief minister Shafie Apdal, after suffering from a spate of defections in the years that followed the 2020 state polls.

Warisan had performed disastrously when it went solo in the 2022 general election (GE15), winning just three parliamentary seats in Sabah compared with eight in 2018 (GE14), when it was allies with Pakatan Harapan.

Shafie comfortably retained his Senallang seat, while Warisan also held on to Silam, Merotai and Sebatik.

Warisan’s biggest achievements were its major inroads in urban, Chinese-majority seats, with the party having a major hand in booting DAP out of the Sabah state assembly by wresting Luyang, Likas, Sri Tanjong, Tanjong Papat, Elopura and Kapayan.

It also retained Tanjung Aru comfortably, with party veep Junz Wong winning with a 3,588-vote majority despite not having Pakatan Harapan’s backing this time around.

It however lost several key battlegrounds like Kunak, Petagas, Banggi and Moyog.

In 2018, Warisan won 21 of the 60 seats up for grabs and added two more in the 2020 state polls. For this election, the party went solo, contesting all 73 state seats.

Previously, Shafie said the party would not work with federal-based entities if it needed to partner up to form the state government after the polls.