Following the
1990 state election where the
Sabah People's United Front (BERJAYA) failed to win any seats, it merged with the
United Sabah National Organisation (USNO) to form the Sabah chapter of the
peninsula-based
United Malays National Organisation. It was the ruling party in Sabah as part of the wider
Barisan Nasional coalition from 1994 until the
2018 state election. Following the party's defeat in 2018, Sabah UMNO chairman
Hajiji Noor half the party's elected representatives, five members of parliament and nine state assemblymen, to leave the party and sit as independents. They subsequently joined the
Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU), itself an UMNO splinter party, and formed its Sabah chapter. Hajiji was replaced by
Bung Moktar Radin, and the state chapter persisted despite concerns that it may be dissolved. The party triggered the
2023 Sabah political crisis when it, as the leader of Barisan Nasional in the state, withdrew the coalition's support for the
Gabungan Rakyat Sabah government led by Hajiji. This triggered a split within the state chapter as five assemblymen announced their support for Hajiji. The crisis ended when the central leadership of Barisan Nasional resolved to support Hajiji as chief minister, so as to reflect the parties' co-operation at the federal level as part of the
Anwar Ibrahim cabinet. The five assemblymen who supported Hajiji later left the party to join Hajiji's
Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (GAGASAN). == List of leaders ==