2026 Lamag by-election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |||||||||||||||||||
24 January 2026
| |||||||||||||||||||
N58 Lamag seat in the Sabah State Legislative Assembly | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnout | 55.16% (as 3 p.m.) | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
A by-election in Lamag is scheduled to be held on 24 January 2026 for the Sabah State Legislative Assembly seat of Lamag. It was called following the death of Bung Moktar Radin on 5 December 2025.[1] Bung served as the Lamag MLA from 2020. The by-election is held concurrently with the 2026 Kinabatangan by-election, the federal seat Bung held.
The election is the first by-election since the 2025 Sabah state election which was held on 29 November 2025, only 6 days before Bung's death.[2] Bung defended the seat and was reelected as the Lamag MLA after very narrowly defeating independent candidate Mohd Ismail Ayub, Johainizamshah Johari of the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), Saifulah Lokman of the Heritage Party (WARISAN), Mazlin Madali of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Salahuddin Anoi of the Parti Impian Sabah (PIS) by a majority of only 153 votes.[3] The by-election is also part of the second set of by-elections since GE15 where an incumbent death led to simultaneous by-elections in both parliamentary and state constituencies since Pulai and Simpang Jeram in 2023.
Lamag is a Muslim Bumiputera-majority seat comprising predominantly 86.0% of the overall voters, followed by 13.6% non-Muslim Bumiputera and 0.40% Chinese.
Bung Moktar died on 5 December 2025 at Kota Kinabalu Gleneagles Hospital, after being hospitalized for kidney failure and a lung infection.[4]
Nomination
BN nominated Ismail Ayob, as direct party candidate. He trailed second behind Bung Mokhtar on previous state election as an independent candidate.[5] Warisan nominated previous Kinabatangan candidate Mazliwati Abd Malek as their by-election candidate on 5 January 2026.[6]
Gabungan Rakyat Sabah announced it would not contest the seat out of respect for Bung.[7] Perikatan Nasional similarly also decided not to contest both the Kinabatangan and Lamag seats.[8]
Timeline
The key dates are listed below.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 5 December 2025 | Bung Moktar Radin died in office as the Lamag MLA |
| 16 December 2025 | Issue of the Writ of Election |
| 10 January 2026 | Nomination Day |
| 10 - 23 January 2026 | Campaigning Period |
| 20 - 23 January 2026 | Early Polling Day For Postal, Overseas and Advance Voters |
| 24 January 2026 | Polling Day |
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ∆% | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BN | Mohd Ismail Ayob | 7,269 | 82.07 |  42.93 | ||
| Heritage | Mazliwati Abdul Malik Chua | 1,588 | 17.93 | 14.50 | ||
| Total valid votes | 8,857 | 100.00 | ||||
| Total rejected ballots | 160 | |||||
| Unreturned ballots | 7 | |||||
| Turnout | 9,024 | 64.93 |  8.10 | |||
| Registered electors | 13,899 | |||||
| Majority | 5,681 | 64.14 | 62.61 | |||
| BN hold | Swing | |||||
