Abbreviation PDS Founded March 1994 Split from Parti Bersatu Sabah | President Tan Sri Bernard Dompok Dissolved 8 August 1999 | |
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Founder Former Kadazandusun Murut leaders of Parti Bersatu Sabah | ||
The Sabah Democratic Party or Malay: Parti Demokratik Sabah (PDS) was a political party based in Sabah, Malaysia. It was an ethnically-based party striving to voice the rights and advance the development of Kadazan-Dusun and Murut population of Sabah and the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia.
History
The party started as "Parti Demokratik Sabah" (PDS), which was founded by Bernard Dompok and other leaders who split from Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) soon after the Sabah state election, 1994 to join the Barisan Nasional coalition. PBS had won a majority in the Sabah State Legislative Assembly, but the defections allowed Barisan Nasional to form government. Part of the enticement offered by Barisan Nasional to the defectors was the promise of a rotating chief ministry, which Dompok held from 1998 to 1999. The defection from PBS damaged the new party at the 1995 federal election, in which it won no seats.
PDS was renamed as United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) in 1999, taking the same UPKO acronym of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazan Organisation, which was formed and dissolved in the 1960s. The party won three federal seats at the 1999 election, and four at the 2004 and 2008 polls.