He said the message the voters in Sarawak sent in the election was more or less the same sentiments all over rural Malaysia, although urban Malaysians might have a slightly different view.

“And if this continues, then we are going to see the Sarawak 2016 success emulated in the next general election as well,” he said in his latest post in his blog yesterday.

Salleh said, some people were attributing the Sarawak state election results to the low voter turnout.

“We must remember that in 2011, Barisan Nasional won 77 percent of the seats compared to 88 percent this time around. And this was also based on the same 70 percent voter turnout. So there must be other reasons other than just voter turnout at play here,” he said.

Salleh said, one major factor, was Chief Minister Adenan Satem himself.

“Even the opposition reluctantly admitted today that they lost to Adenan’s popularity. And both sides of the political divide talk about ‘Team Adenan’, admitting that this was a major deciding factor,” he said.

He said the opposition, on the other hand, had no team as they were terribly fragmented and divided.

“Let us just admit that Barisan Nasional at both the local and federal level ran a good campaign and it paid off. And credit has to go to Team Adenan and Team (Datuk Seri) Najib (Tun Razak),” he said.

– BERNAMA