Sarawak state election 2021

Sarawak votes separately from the rest of Malaysia. Its state assembly runs on its own clock, and by 2021 that clock had been stopped: the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021 suspended the assembly's dissolution, and a separate proclamation covering Sarawak alone ran from 2 August 2021 with an end date of 2 February 2022, on the stated ground that COVID-19 threatened security, economic life and public order.

The Election Commission confirmed the state election was postponed. The block was lifted early: on 3 November 2021 the Yang di-Pertuan Agong consented to revoking the Sarawak proclamation, which under the Ordinance started a 60-day clock. Polling was set for 18 December 2021.

Eighty-two seats were at stake, the number fixed by the Dewan Undangan Negeri (Composition of Membership) Ordinance 2014, up from 71.

The 2025 Ordinance later raised the statutory membership to 99, although the additional constituencies still required federal and Election Commission processes before they could be used for an election. Some 349 candidates stood, most of them in multi-cornered contests.

The outcome was one-sided. Election Commission chairman Abdul Ghani Salleh put turnout at 60.67 per cent, with 759,627 ballots cast; ElectionData.MY records 1,252,014 registered voters.

Gabungan Parti Sarawak

won 76 of the 82 seats on about 61.3 per cent of the vote

Parti Sarawak Bersatu

won 4 seats on roughly 18.7 per cent of the vote

DAP

standing under Pakatan Harapan, won 2

Abang Johari Openg was sworn in again as Chief Minister.

Why the result was so lopsided is where accounts diverge, and each explanation belongs to the person making it.

Arnold Puyok of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

points to development spending and a "Sarawak First" pitch drawing Dayak voters back to GPS

James Chin and other analysts quoted before polling

emphasised instead that the opposition vote was split, with DAP, PKR, Amanah and PSB campaigning separately

Lee Poh Onn and Kevin Zhang of ISEAS

stressed incumbency mechanics: GPS's helicopter and boat access to rural seats, control of village venues, and pandemic rules that limited physical campaigning

Analysts surveyed by the Jeffrey Cheah Institute

had expected a comfortable GPS win but not one this large

Two things followed that matter beyond Sarawak. Four days before polling, the Dewan Rakyat passed a Bill that later amended the Federal Constitution’s provisions on the States of the Federation, the definition of “the Federation” and Sarawak natives; the text does not expressly declare Malaysia to have three equal constituent entities.

Then, on 15 February 2022, the Sarawak assembly amended the state constitution to rename the Chief Minister as Premier, effective 1 March 2022 — making Abang Johari the first holder of that title. Abang Johari has consistently framed these steps as restoring rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963; that framing is his and GPS's, and researchers disagree over how far Sarawak's and Sabah's autonomy paths actually run together.

At the November 2022 federal election, GPS won 23 of Sarawak's 31 parliamentary seats, joined the unity government under Anwar Ibrahim, and Fadillah Yusof became a Deputy Prime Minister.