In the just-concluded state election, the Sarawak Barisan Nasional suffered a drop of nearly 10 percentage point in popular votes and failed to clinch a clean sweep as some quarters had predicted.

Its share of the popular vote went down from 71.16% in 2001 to 62.14% in 2006 while Democratic Action Party's (DAP) share went up from 8.14% to 14.94%. Parti Keadilan Rakyat's (PKR) share went up from 6.94% to 8.61% but Independents/PAS' share was down from 11.9% to 4.94%. Snap which contested under BN in 2001 this time on its own garnered 9.36% of the 556,657 votes cast.

However, being less popular now does not mean the BN had yielded its enviable position with more than a two-third majority that it has been enjoying for numerous terms, even when the state legislative assembly has been enlarged from 62 to 71 members following last year's delineation of electoral boundaries.