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All 48 seats in the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly 25 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The fifth Sarawak state election was held between Wednesday, 15 April and Thursday, 16 April 1987 with a nomination date set on Monday, 6 April 1987. This was a snap election following the 'Ming Court' affair. The state assembly was dissolved on 12 March 1987 by Sarawak governor with the advice of chief minister of Sarawak, Abdul Taib Mahmud.[1]
All the 48 Sarawak state assembly seats were contested. In this election, Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) fielded candidates for all 48 seats, PBDS for 21 seats, PERMAS for 21 seats, Democratic Action Party (DAP) for 11 seats, and Sarawak Democratik Bersatu (BERSATU) for one seat. There were 16 independents contesting for the seats. There were a total of 118 candidates vying for the seats, which was the lowest since 1979 election.[2] A total of 625,270 voters were eligible to cast their votes.[3]