Next Sarawak state election

The next Sarawak state election, formally the 13th Sarawak general election, will elect the 20th Sarawak State Legislative Assembly. It must be held on 10 April 2027 at the latest, persuant to clause 21(4) of the Constitution of Sarawak. This date is dependent on when the 19th Legislative Assembly first sits. All 99 seats will be up for election, presuming the election is held after the next redistribution. This will be the first election since the Sarawak State Assembly passed the bill to expand the assembly to 99 seats in 2025.^[1]

Elections in Malaysia are conducted at the federal and state levels. Federal elections elect members of the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of Parliament, while state elections in each of the 13 states elect members of their respective state legislative assembly. As Malaysia follows the Westminster system of government, the head of government (Prime Minister at the federal level and the Menteri Besar/Chief Ministers/Premier at the state level) is the person who commands the confidence of the majority of members in the respective legislature – this is normally the leader of the party or coalition with the majority of seats in the legislature.

The Legislative Assembly currently consists of 82 members, known as Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), that are elected for five-year terms. Each MLA is elected from a single-member constituencies using the first-past-the-post voting system; each constituency contains approximately an equal number of voters. If one party obtains a majority of seats, then that party is entitled to form the government, with its leader becoming the Premier. In the event of a hung parliament, where no single party obtains the majority of seats, the government may still form through a coalition or a confidence and supply agreement with other parties. In practice, coalitions and alliances in Malaysia, and by extension, in Sarawak, generally persist between elections, and member parties do not normally contest for the same seats.

The voting age is currently 18.^[2][3][4][5] Elections are conducted by the Election Commission of Malaysia, which is under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Department. Malaysia practices automatic voter registration but does not practice compulsory voting.

In 2023, Zohari Openg, the Sarawak Premier and chairman of the governing coalition GPS, annound that the coalition will contest all 82 seats in the next election, then the total seats in Sarawak Assembly.^[6]

Meanwhile, Democratic Action Party (DAP), has targeted up to 18 seats to contest in the next state election.^[7] DAP has been the sole opposition party in Sarawak Assembly, after Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB), the other opposition party, were dissolved and merged with Progressive Democratic Party, a component party of GPS in 2024.