After the 1996 election, the elections in 3 seats were declared void and by-elections were held in 1997.
1996 N.22 Bukit Begunan
Election court finds bribery, declares the election void
PBDS’s Mong anak Dagang beat independent Donald Lawan by 2,165 votes. Donald Lawan filed an election petition on 17 October 1996 alleging bribery and excessive spending. On 13 February 1997 the election judge found the election affected by widespread bribery and declared it void.
By-election By-election, 16 March 1997: Mong anak Dagang re-elected with a majority of 4,615.
DAP’s Wong Sing Ai beat SUPP’s Michael Sim Kiam Hui by 22 votes, with 99 ballots rejected. The BN side filed a petition and the election was later declared void. We have not found a reliable record of the grounds.
By-election By-election, 26 October 1997: Michael Sim Kiam Hui elected with a majority of 384.
PBB’s Celestine Ujang anak Jilan was returned unopposed on nomination day. DAP filed a petition and the election was later declared void. We have not found a reliable record of the grounds.
By-election By-election, 25 May 1997: Celestine Ujang beat DAP’s Chiew Chiu Sing by 5,471 votes.
Five petitions were filed after the 1996 election; those for Padungan and Balingian came from independent candidates. Neither seat had a by-election afterwards, so the results stood.
SUPP’s Lee Kim Shin beat PKR’s Michael Teo by 58 votes, with 186 ballots rejected. PKR said at the time it would petition the election court to declare the result void. We have not found a court decision; the seat had no by-election afterwards.
In these seats, rejected ballots outnumbered the winner’s lead.
Rejected ballots belong to no candidate, so this does not mean the result would have changed; it does show why every ballot needs to be marked correctly.
42N.18 Ulu Ai1969 / 1970 · David anak Jemut (SNAP)majority 45 · rejected 365
Recounts
Official results data does not record whether a recount took place. We have not found reliable records of recounts in Sarawak assembly seats, so none are listed. If you have an official document or a mainstream news report, please send it through “Report an error”.
Sources and method
Majorities, rejected ballots and electors come from ElectionData.MY (MECo) past Sarawak election statistics, checked seat by seat and cross-checked with candidates’ votes.
Court cases are listed only where a judgment, publication or public compilation could be found; results without a reliable source are left out. Wikipedia is a secondary compilation and is labelled as such.
Where an old seat has the same name as a seat today, it links to today’s seat page; this does not mean the boundaries are the same.
