Opposition parties reviewing the Gaya by-election results attributed the switch in Kadazandusun support as a key factor for the Barisan Nasional's handsome win but said other indications show that the opposition still has a fighting chance.

DAP Gaya by-election chairperson Teresa Kok said the party was disappointed with its performance but accepted the results as the party only revived its Sabah branch a few months ago.

"As a political party which started the revamp (of the Sabah branch) a few months ago, we did not set high expectation in this by-election. The defeat is also expected as two opposition parties were contesting against the BN," said Kok, who is also the member of Parliament for Seputeh.

She conceded that it would be more difficult to fight the BN if two or more opposition parties were vying for the same seat.

Yesterday, the BN retained the Gaya parliamentary seat by a wide majority of 11,923 votes, while DAP and Keadilan came trailing in at a distant second and third respectively.

BN's Liew Teck Chan garnered 15,639 votes to defeat DAP's Dr Hiew King Cheu and Keadilan's Christina Liew who secured 3,716 votes and 2,613 votes respectively.

The Pairin factor

According to Kok, the party's early analysis found that three key factors had contributed to the party's defeat, including the "Pairin factor" that had pulled Kadazandusun support to the BN.

The two other factors were the low voter turnout at the polls, attributed to public disillusionment with the voting process, and the large transfer of Gaya voters to Api-Api, another state constituency in Kota Kinabalu.

It is widely acknowledged that BN's victory yesterday was largely due to the re-entry of Parti Bersatu Sabah into the BN fold. Led by Joseph Pairin Kitingan, the BN candidate swept almost all the votes from the Kadazandusun community (33 percent of the total registered voters).

Kok, in a press statement, said that main support for the DAP came from voters in Menggatal, Inanam and Kota Kinabalu. "Their votes to DAP and Keadilan have sent a clear message that they are utterly disgusted and angered by the abuses of power and funds by the Kota Kinabalu City Hall and Sabah state government," she said.

"It is time for (them) to review the series of unfair and unjust practices that infringed on the rights of the people."

Among the main grouses of local residents were the 'exhorbitant' car-parking fees and the resettlement issue of the Pulau Gaya squatters.

The victorious Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) candidate Liew Teck Chan is said to have a vested interest in the carpark-operating company while the Sabah state government had earlier undertaken the eviction of squatters in Pulau Gaya.

Sign of protest

Meanwhile, PAS Youth leader Mahfuz Omar said the total votes that went to DAP and Keadilan did not differ much from the votes that went to Keadilan during the 1999 elections.

"This shows that BN did not win all the opposition votes. The BN victory was due to the increase in votes which previously went to the PBS," he added.

On a more optimistic note, Mahfuz said the support given to DAP and Keadilan also showed that Sabah voters are now beginning to accept different political parties.

"Sabah has changed and voters can now accept different parties. Previously it was just Sabah for Sabahans," he said.

Mahfuz pointed out that the low voter turnout of less than 45 percent, the lowest ever for a by-election, also showed that many had refrained from voting out of protest.

"I hope all opposition parties will learn from this lesson to avoid clashes among themselves. The commitment of all opposition parties should be the same and that is to bring down the BN government," he added.

Meanwhile, national Keadilan leaders were unavailable for comment.