Kota Kinabalu: The Usno-led Sabah Alliance’s clean sweep of all 32 State Legislative Assembly seats in the second state election in October 1971 was achieved through an elaborate plan in which the potential opposition candidates fell for a free all-expenses trip that kept them marooned abroad.
They had no chance of returning immediately because their passports were held by certain compromised Special Branch personnel who accompanied them on the junket, Daily Express can reveal for the first time.
It remains the only fully uncontested election in Malaysian political history, with all 32 candidates from the United Sabah National Organisation (Usno) and the Sabah Chinese Association (SCA), winning all the seats unopposed.
This was revealed by former Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh (pic) in an exclusive interview with Daily Express, recently. It was not known who were the opposition candidates that fell for the trap.
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