The opposition Pakatan Rakyat made gains, but fell short of its goal to deny a two-thirds majority for BN.

[12] The election also marks the debut of the Parti Cinta Malaysia, which is not affiliated with Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional and is contesting in 6 seats.

[13] During the election, the opposition began painting the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition in a bad light by pointing to the impounding on Alkitab or Bahasa Malaysia bibles, saying that they were anti-Christian.

[14] Another election issue that the opposition has brought up was regarding the long tenure of Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and his refusal to resign and appoint a successor.

The issue went in hand with them pointing out his alleged amassing of a huge fortune while in office which has been revealed in numerous websites, especially the Sarawak Report.

Under Malaysian electoral law, teachers, military personnel, policemen and students based away from their constituencies are eligible to submit postal votes.

Prime minister Najib Razak celebrated the victory as an indication that BN's support in Sarawak was still strong and noted that Pakatan Rakyat had failed to make major inroads into the state.

[20] The SUPP suffered a net loss of five seats, all to the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the same number it lost during the previous election.

[5] However Ho Leng passed away in 2014 due to cancer;[28] no by-elections were held as his death were less than 2 years until the expiry of the State Assembly.

[30] Meanwhile, PKR decided to petition the Elections Court to declare the Senadin contest null and void, citing irregularities during the polling process.

In 2015, the PR coalition was disbanded, due to disagreements between PAS and DAP over the former's insistence to implement the Islamic penal code, known as hudud, in the State of Kelantan.