PARTI Bersatu Sabah’s stunning defeat in the Sandakan by-election in Sabah is a lesson on how not to run a campaign.

IT was one day after the one year anniversary of the fall of Barisan Nasional. If you were in Sandakan on the east coast of Sabah on Friday and witnessed the rock star reception ‘”bossku” Datuk Seri Najib Razak received, you would not have thought Pakatan Harapan is now in control of the Federal government.

Rather than issues, the Sandakan by-election campaign has so far been about the personalities of two candidates with similar starts to their political lives and different approaches to campaigning.

AFTER two decades of absence, the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) symbol is making a comeback in the Sandakan by-election. The last time the PBS symbol – a handshake with the Sabah map in the background – was used by the multiracial Sabah-based party was in GE10 in 1999.

AFTER winning three by-elections in a row – the Cameron Highlands MP seat and Semenyih and Rantau state seats, can the opposition make it 4-0 in the parliamentary seat of Sandakan?

Forget Brexit, we might have our own divorce mess – Sarexit and Sabexit – if history is not put right.

THE Rantau town in Negri Sembilan is practically a one-street town where almost everybody knows everybody.

IN the movie Captain America: Civil War, the Avengers are divided over political pressure for the superheroes to be accountable for their action which usually ends up in mass destruction.

IF the Thai polls are a 750m race, Phalang Pracharat (military junta proxy party) starts at 250m while Pheu Thai (Thaksin Shinawatra’s party) starts at 0m.

IN July 1976, Parliament voted to relegate the status of Sabah and Sarawak from equal partner to one of the 13 states in Malaysia.

The upcoming Rantau by-election will be a test bed for the ‘unholy’ union of PAS and Umno.

The Islamist party looks like it will support any party that makes it strong, say political observers.