An EC team, with a ballot box, prepares to board a longboat bound for Benawa in Marudi.
KUCHING (Dec 18): Politics is a game of numbers, and this saying can also be applied in this 12th state election whereby the numbers determine not only the winners, but also who gets to have their RM5,000 election deposit back even if he or she loses.
Under the election laws, a candidate for a State Legislative Assembly (DUN) seat has to deposit RM5,000 to contest and this would be forfeited if he polls less than one-eighth, or 12.5 per cent, of the total ballots cast in that seat.
In Sarawak, the term ‘lenyau cengkeram’ is a popular term used for someone who loses deposit in the seat he or she has contested after failing to poll at least one-eighth of the total ballots cast.
The 12th Sarawak election has shaped up to be the most crowded election the state has ever witnessed, with a total of 342 candidates vying for the 82 seats.
With many of the seats seeing multi-cornered contests, there are bound to be some candidates who would lose their deposits, particularly those who have gained very few voters. The question is – how many of them will ‘lenyau cengkeram’ after vote tallying ends tonight?
In the last state election in 2016, almost one-third of the total 229 candidates who contested lost their deposits.
It was also the first election with 82 seats being contested following redistribution and redelineation exercise, which resulted in the addition of 11 new seats then.
Based on information collated from the Election Commission (EC)’s website, 69 candidates failed to secure the minimum of one-eighth of the ballots cast, required to save their deposits.
This meant that a total RM345,000 in election deposits were forfeited during that election. Most of those who lost their deposits in 2016 were Independent candidates, totalling 20.
All of then-State Reform Party (STAR)’s 11 candidates lost their deposits, while all of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB)’s five candidates fielded in the state polls met a similar fate.
Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Democratic Action Party (DAP), on the other hand, saw 10 out of their 40 candidates and seven out of 31, respectively, similarly losing their deposits.
Nine of Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah)’s 13 candidates lost their depositsn while Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) saw an equally crushing defeat with seven of its 11 candidates losing their deposits.
The State Barisan Nasional (BN), which captured 72 out of the 82 seats, saw all of its candidates keeping their deposits.
Whether or not this trend continues in this 12th state election would be known once all the votes are counted and tallied tonight.
Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), formed in 2018 and comprising components formerly of BN ’s, is contesting in all 82 seats and is debuting its logo, although their candidates mostly comprise incumbents who had won on BN ticket previously.
Also debuting in this election is Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB), which is vying for 70 seats, while there are also 30 Independents joining the fray.
Seventy-three candidates are from Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK), 28 from PKR, 26 from DAP, 15 from Parti Aspirasi Rakyat Sarawak (or formerly, STAR), 11 from PBDSB, eight from Amanah, five from Parti Sedar Rakyat Sarawak (Sedar) and one from PAS.
Of the 82 state seats, Dudong hosts the most crowded contest, with an eight-cornered fight.
Seven seats have six-cornered fights, 24 are five-cornered battles, 33 have four candidates contesting, 13 are three-cornered fights, while only four constituencies see straight fights.
An interesting seat to watch would be Krian, where incumbent Datuk Ali Biju is still listed as among the candidates despite him withdrawing from the contest a few days after nomination.
Ali, who is a very popular figure in Krian, is now throwing his support for the GPS candidate Friday Belik and has urged his supporters to vote for GPS instead of him. Whether Ali would emerge as winner or lose his deposit, this would be answered tonight.
Meanwhile, EC head of corporate communications Mohd Azlan Charles Abdullah explained that any election deposit must be paid before 10am on nomination day during the submission of nomination papers.
The deposit could be paid early to the EC state director or the returning officer of the constituency, and the payment receipt must be brought on nomination day as proof of payment; otherwise, the nomination papers submitted would be deemed incomplete.
“For a parliamentary seat, the election deposit is RM10,000, whereas the deposit for state seat is RM5,000,” he said.
Mohd Azlan pointed out that in addition to the election deposit, the candidates too must pay campaign materials deposit of RM5,000 for a parliamentary seat, and RM3,000 for a state seat – meaning for the 12th state election, the candidate must come up with an amount of RM8,000.
Unlike the election deposit, which is forfeited if the candidate fails to secure at least one eight of the total number of votes for that seat, Mohd Azlan said the deposit would be returned to the candidate or his/ her agent when all the campaign materials such as flags, billboards and other related physical items are cleared within 14 days after polling.
If the candidate fails to attend to the cleaning-up within the specified period, the deposit would be used by the local authority to do it instead; any balance remaining would be returned to the candidate or the agent.
“Any candidate failing to pay the campaign materials deposit would not be allowed to install or display election campaign materials.
“(If they still display election campaigning materials) he or she can be convicted under Election Offences Act 1954,” said Mohd Azlan.