Upko president Ewon Benedick comfortably retained his Kadamaian seat with a solid 9,672-vote majority, despite contesting without the backing of PH or Barisan Nasional.
He had won the seat in 2018 when Upko was with BN, and defended it in the 2020 state polls when his party was allied with PH and Warisan.
Upko deputy president Peter Donald Mojuntin also recorded a key victory by snagging the Moyog seat formerly held by Warisan, while former Upko president Wilfred Madius Tangau won in Tamparuli. Both of them won with majorities larger than 2,000 votes.
This would be an impressive haul of seats for Upko, which pulled out of PH just days before nomination day. It only held one seat previously – Ewon’s Kadamaian constituency.
Jeffrey Kitingan’s Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) did not perform as well, having left Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) last month in protest of the coalition’s pact with Pakatan Harapan.
The party that bases its support on Kadazandusun Murut voters did not make significant gains outside its existing bases, and even lost four seats it won in 2020.
Kitingan won convincingly in Tambunan with a 7,311-vote majority, while STAR also held on to the Bingkor seat by a solid 5,427 votes.
However, the party lost Sook and Liawan to Barisan Nasional – Paginatan to Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM); and Tulid to independent candidate Jordan Jude Ellron.
Jordan is the son of former STAR deputy president Ellron Alfred Angin, who contested on a GRS ticket in Sook and came in second behind BN’s Arthur Joseph Kurup in the five-cornered contest.
STAR deputy president Kenny Chua lost in Inanam to Warisan, while the party’s information chief Anuar Ghani was soundly defeated by GRS secretary-general Masidi Manjun in Karanaan.
It was a more costly election outing for KDM as it was largely wiped out with its top leaders defeated, except in Paginatan.
KDM was hoping to win over voters in the interior Kadazandusun Murut regions dominated by STAR and GRS, fielding 40 candidates. However, it only managed to snag one seat.
Acting KDM president Priscella Peter lost the Melalap seat previously held by her father, Peter Anthony, the party’s founder, who is in jail for forgery.
She came close and lost by just 525 votes to PH’s Jamawi Jaafar, formerly of GRS.
KDM deputy president Wetrom Bahanda was also defeated in Matunggong as Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) secretary-general Julita Mojungki successfully defended her seat.
The new party, nonetheless, managed to win the Paginatan seat, with former Sabah treasury permanent secretary Rusdin Riman defeating rivals from GRS, BN, STAR and Warisan to win with a 736-vote majority.
Nonetheless, while the cumulative six seats won by the three parties may seem meagre, it gave all of them a seat at the table as negotiations were held to form the next Sabah government.