announced. BN labelled the oppositions such as DAP, PKR, and PAS as "West Malaysia opportunists", "liars" and "rejects". They even labelled DAP as "dangerous and poisonous". BN also labelled the opposition as the transversities welcoming Anwar Ibrahim at Kuching airport. Meanwhile, the opposition lashed back and lablled BN as "Barang Naik" (goods increase") in reference to inflation of prices of daily necessities under BN governance. The opposition also attacked the character of the chief minister Taib Mahmud. The largest opposition public meeting on the night before the polling day was at Kings Centre Shopping Plaza at Kuching, with over 5,000 voters. Polling On the polling day, 62.6% of the registered voters went our for voting. The election commission spent RM 31 million in this election. They used 3,889 land vehicles, 1,007 boats and 48 speedboats to reach the 1,705 polling centres staffed with 14,571 officers, 71 returning officers and 170 assistant returning officers. Voters from rural areas such as Ba'kelalan and Telang Usan went to polls early in the morning and the polling was stopped at noon with certain polling stations opened for half an hour. DAP, SNAP, and PKR parties were able to put more polling agents to supervise voting counting at polling stations. There was no incidence of violence reported. The polling day was peaceful. Results By 8 pm on the same day, results started to pour in with overall results known by midnight. Barisan successfully captured 61 seats out of 71 seats, but lost a total of nine seats; eight seats to opposition and one seat to an independent. Meanwhile, the opposition managed to captured 8 seats. This was the first time since the 1987 election that the opposition made a significant inroad in a state election. SUPP, a component party in the BN coalition, is the biggest loser as it lost six seats to DAP in Chinese urban areas. SUPP almost lost all the seats in the Kuching city (Padungan, Pending, Kota Sentosa, and Batu Lintang) but able to retain one seat Batu Kawah. Meanwhile, twenty one candidates lost their deposits (garnered less than 1/8 of the total votes cast), mostly independents. BN was managed to secure 62.8% of the popular vote in this election, a significant reduction when compared to 70.3% in the last election. Meanwhile, the opposition together won 47.2% of the popular vote. BN experienced a general drop in support from multiple ethnic