KOTA KINABALU, Nov. 13 -- The Sabah election will be as much about family legacy as party ideology, with several of the state's most influential political dynasties splintered across competing coalitions, illustrating the region's fluid and personality-driven politics.

The pattern is repeated across constituencies: family members who once stood together now campaign under different flags, their split allegiances reflecting both personal ambition and the complex realignments that have reshaped Sabah's political landscape in recent years.

Though he is now the Sabah governor, the shadow of Tun Musa Aman, Sabah's longest-serving chief minister, still looms large over the upcoming election as his family members continue his political legacy,...