COMMENT | As the results of the Sabah 2025 polls reverberate across Malaysia, it is useful to analyse voting patterns in terms of turnout and support. This information can help provide a more informed assessment of how Sabahans voted in the election.

This piece offers an analysis of ethnic voting behaviour, drawing from the macro results rather than the polling station data, as the latter is not yet fully available.

The analysis is based on the electoral roll used for the election, as a methodology of ecological inference is used to estimate the voting of different groups. One should interpret the findings below as preliminary indicators, as broad trends.

A needed caveat

Conducting an ethnic voting analysis properly for Sabah is not easy, as groups are more diverse and differ widely across Sabah.

For example, there are different types of Bajau on the east and west coasts of Sabah. Also, there is considerable diversity within communities such as the Dusun and Murut communities.

Moreover, analysing by religious differences - which is the (rather) uninformed ethnic classification label imposed by the Election Commission in differentiating Sabahan voters - is limited, given that...