COMMENT Fresh from a hard-fought battle to wrest control of Sarawak, the BN and Pakatan Rakyat must again slug it out in a high-stakes election for parliamentary seats, widely touted as the most competitive in Malaysian history.

As evident in the 2011 state election, much has changed in Sarawak since the general election in 2008, when the BN made an almost clean sweep of the 31 parliamentary seats in the state. Back then, Sarawak and Sabah were instrumental in ensuring the BN’s continued grip of federal power by contributing almost 40 percent of its parliamentary seats.

But politics in these states, particularly Sarawak, have seen significant changes that might alter the balance of power at the federal level in the 13th general election (GE13).