1976 Sabah state election

The 1976 Sabah state election was held between Monday, 5 April and Saturday, 14 April 1976. This was the third state election to take place, and the first to feature opposition candidates since the first election on 1967, as the second state election on 1971 has all government candidates won uncontested. The state assembly were dissolved on 23 January 1976, and the nomination day was on 18 March 1976.

In the election, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Jelata Sabah (BERJAYA) led by Fuad Stephens, won the election with a majority of 28 seats out of 48 seats in the newly expanded state assembly, and ousted incumbent government United Sabah National Organisation (USNO) from power. USNO, who is in coalition with Sabah Chinese Association (SCA) that governs the state for the past 9 years, only won 20 seats while SCA lost all their seats.

Background and contesting parties
BERJAYA was registered only less than a year earlier on July 1975, when some USNO members, dissatisfied with the party's direction under leadership of Mustapha Harun, chose to exit the party and form a new party. BERJAYA applied and successfully joined Barisan Nasional after its registration. They would be later joined by then-Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Sabah, Fuad Stephens, who resigned from his position to lead the new party as its president.

Mustapha himself in October 1975 has resigned from his position of Sabah's Chief Minister, a position he had held since USNO won the first state election, though he remained party leader. His deputy, Said Keruak, replaced him and was Chief Minister heading into the 1976 election. USNO also had convincing wins against BERJAYA candidates in two December 1975 state by-elections, in Kuala Kinabatangan and Labuan.

SCA, which was in the Sabah Alliance together with USNO, led by Michael Liaw, also contested in this election. Among other parties contesting were the United Sabah People's Organization, led by Richard E. Lee and Joe Manjaji, as well as the Peninsula-based Malaysian Social Justice Party (PEKEMAS).

Days before nomination day, BERJAYA suffered two setbacks when its secretary-general Mohammad Noor Mansor was detained under Internal Security Act, which made him unable to contest the election with the party nominating his father as the replacement candidate, and, Ghani Gilong, then a federal minister and one of the founders of BERJAYA party as well as its vice president, announced that he was leaving BERJAYA to return to USNO, his former party.

At the time of the assembly's dissolution, out of 32 elected and 6 nominated members of the legislative assembly, Sabah Alliance held 34 seats, BERJAYA three seats and an independent held one.

Aftermath
After BERJAYA's win in the election, Fuad were sworn in as the new Chief Minister. But Fuad's tenure would to be short-lived, as he and several of his cabinet ministers died in the helicopter crash on 6 June the same year. Harris Salleh, his deputy, would replace him as Chief Minister.

On April 1978, Mustapha announced his resignation as president of USNO for health reasons and was replaced by his deputy, Said Keruak.