November 18, 2025
KOTA KINABALU – Sabah voters have never had it so good … or so bad.
With nearly 600 candidates contesting for 73 seats, and with as many as 14 fighting for one seat, the voters are spoilt for choice.
But it also makes choosing a candidate very difficult.
Deciding on who to vote for is like choosing which bag to buy in a mall during sales season, and on a limited budget, says Lorraine Jacob.
“It is very difficult, you know,” says the 38-year-old Sino-native shopaholic.
“You have too many to choose from but so little money to spend.”
To make things easier, she said she would first strike out those whom she thinks are a total no-no – in this case, the unknown parties and independents.
Lorraine will then spend the next two weeks seeing how the rest perform and what they can offer before making up her mind.
A 48-year-old civil servant in Kepayan, who wishes to remain anonymous, has a different approach.
He said he would look only at local parties and then find one that he thinks can really serve and be the voice of the people.
“We want change. We want to show that we Sabahans have strong and capable leaders,” said the Tidong native who was born in Tawau and moved to Kepayan 10 years ago.
Civil servant Allen Andrew, 35, already has his choice in mind so the other names and parties are just unnecessary noise.
“My choice is the incumbent because I see her on the ground all the time, from when she was just elected up to now. The rest are just distractions,” he said.
In Moyog, locals are more concerned about how this abundance of choice is going to split votes and affect the outcome of the state election.
Alvy Micheal said too many parties are actually causing disunity, because voters will be segregated and split into too many camps.
“We want one local leader, but instead, we are forced to choose between so many local leaders.
“So, the votes are already split.
“This makes it easier for a coalition or big party,” she said.
Cherlyene Mojinun, who lives in Kg Ramayah, said she honestly does not know who to choose from, but might scale down her choices to personalities.
“I used to vote based on the party, but this time, I think I’ll first check out the person, then decide,” said the mother of three.
Resort worker Justin J, is somewhat disappointed with the years of broken promises from politicians who come and go, only to enrich themselves.
“Prior to winning, they promise to fight for rights and bring changes, but after they win, they disappear. The next thing we know, they have started building bungalows for themselves,” he said.
He wants an overall change of leaders, from new faces to new parties, as long as they truly deliver on their promises.
Sabahans really have a tough job at hand with four seats – including Kapayan – seeing 13-cornered fights, Moyog and Banggi facing 12-cornered fights and six seats having 11 candidates.
It’s what American psychologist Barry Schwartz called a paradox of choice: when having too many choices requires more cognitive effort, causing decision fatigue and regret over our choices.
Sabahans, however, are taking it in their stride.
Ivy Erra, in her 40s, joked that she may just have to close her eyes and randomly pick one candidate.