General elections were held in Malaysia on Wednesday, 9 May 2018. At stake were all 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of parliament. The 13th Parliament was dissolved by Prime Minister Najib Razak on 7 April 2018. It would have been automatically dissolved on 24 June 2018, five years after the first meeting of the first session of the 13th Parliament of Malaysia on 24 June 2013.
In an unprecedented victory, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, which had been the country's federal opposition prior to the elections, won a majority in the Dewan Rakyat together with the Sabah Heritage Party (WARISAN), with PH and WARISAN together winning 121 seats. The elections marked the first time in Malaysia's history that the ruling party was voted out of power. The Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition had previously enjoyed an uninterrupted reign over the country since Malaya's independence in 1957, but this came to an end following the elections. PH's leader, Mahathir Mohamad, who previously served as Malaysia's Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003, was sworn in for the second time on 10 May, a day after the elections. At 93 years of age, Mahathir was also the world's oldest elected head of government. Barisan Nasional (BN), led by Najib, held onto 79 seats and became the new federal opposition, along with Gagasan Sejahtera (GS), which won 18 seats. The United Sabah Alliance (USA) won one seat, while three seats were won by independent politicians. The elections were widely regarded as one of the greatest political upsets worldwide in 2018.
In the simultaneous state elections held for twelve of the state legislative assemblies, PH retained Penang and Selangor with larger majorities, while gaining Negeri Sembilan, Malacca, Johor, Kedah and Perak from BN. WARISAN also seized Sabah from BN, which retained only two states – Perlis and Pahang. GS held onto Kelantan while gaining Terengganu from BN. State-level elections were not held in Sarawak, as the state had held its elections separately in 2016. However, as a consequence of the elections, Sarawak-based BN component parties left the coalition to form Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), thereby taking over the state from BN.
Following the elections, Mahathir secured a royal pardon for the jailed PH leader, Anwar Ibrahim, and indicated that he would give way to the latter within the next few years. Meanwhile, Najib resigned as BN's chairman on 12 May and was succeeded as Leader of the Opposition by his party colleague, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Investigations within Malaysia into the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, which had been halted during Najib's tenure, were resumed in the aftermath of the elections, resulting in several ongoing criminal indictments against the former Prime Minister. However, PH only ruled for 22 months before collapsing in the 2020 Malaysian political crisis, to be replaced by a new Government named Perikatan Nasional, led by Muhyiddin Yassin. Perikatan Nasional would itself collapse after 17 months, with Barisan Nasional taking power and Ismail Sabri Yaakob becoming prime minister.
Background.
In the previous general elections in 2013, the incumbent Barisan Nasional government was re-elected for the thirteenth consecutive time, but with a decreased mandate and losing the majority vote. Barisan Nasional chairman, Najib Razak, was re-elected as Prime Minister to a second term. The main opposition, Pakatan Rakyat, led by Anwar Ibrahim, won the majority vote but was unable to win enough seats to form the government due to Malaysia's first-past-the-post voting system and alleged gerrymandering. The elections marked the first time Barisan Nasional lost the majority vote in the party's history.
Electoral system.
Elections in Malaysia exists at two levels: the federal level and the state level. Federal elections are held to elect members of the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of Parliament, while state elections are held to elect members of the 13 State Legislative Assemblies of Malaysia. The heads of executive branch at both the federal and state levels, the Prime Minister and Menteri Besar/Chief Ministers respectively, are indirectly elected, usually filled by a member of the majority party/coalition in the respective legislatures
The Dewan Rakyat is made up of 222 members of parliament, elected for a five-year term; these seats are distributed between the thirteen Malaysian states in proportion to the states' voting population. Members are elected from single-member constituencies that each elects one representative to the Dewan Rakyat using the first-past-the-post voting system. If one party obtains a majority of seats, then that party is entitled to form the Government, with its leader as Prime Minister. If the election results in no single party having a majority, there is a hung parliament. In this case, the options for forming the Government are either a minority government or a coalition. Malaysia does not practice compulsory voting and automatic voter registration. The voting age is above 21 although the age of majority in the country is 18.
The redistribution of electoral boundaries for the entire country had been presented to and passed by the "Dewan Rakyat", and subsequently gazetted on 29 March 2018 after obtaining the royal consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong ahead of the 14th general election. Elections are conducted by the Election Commission of Malaysia (EC), which is under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Department.
Date and cost.
The Constitution of Malaysia requires a general election to be held at the end of five (5) years from the date of the first Parliament of Malaysia proceeding after a general election unless it is dissolved earlier by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong due to a motion of no-confidence or at the request of the Prime Minister. Whenever Parliament (Dewan Rakyat) is dissolved, a general election shall be held within sixty (60) days from the date of the dissolution and Parliament shall be summoned to meet on a date not later than one hundred and twenty (120) days from that date (Article 55 of the Constitution of Malaysia).
Timetable.
The key dates are listed below in Malaysia Standard Time (GMT+8):
Cost.
The cost to the taxpayer of organising the election was RM500 million – RM100 million more than the previous general election.
Part of the spending was spent on indelible ink, which costed around RM4.8 million for a total of 100,000 bottles of 60mL ink imported from Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited in India.
Election spending.
Before the campaign, there were no limits to what a political party, candidate, or third party (corporations, unions, special interest groups, etc.) can spend: Spending rules are only in force after the writs have been dropped and the campaign has begun. Malaysian election law set election spending limit at RM200,000 for each parliamentary candidate and half of the latter for each state legislature candidate.
Dissolution of state legislative assemblies.
While any state may dissolve its assembly independently of the Federal Parliament, the traditional practice is for most state assemblies to be dissolved at the same time as Parliament. In accordance with Malaysian law, the parliament as well as the legislative assemblies of each state ("Dewan Undangan Negeri") would automatically dissolve on the fifth anniversary of the first sitting, and elections must be held within sixty days of the dissolution, unless dissolved prior to that date by their respective Heads of State on the advice of their Heads of Government.
Below are the dates of which the legislative assembly of each state dissolved:
The Sarawak State Legislative Assembly was not dissolved as the last elections were held in 2016 and the term of the state assembly is due to end in 2021.
Parties and leaders.
Altogether 53 parties were eligible to contest in the elections and get on the ballot and can therefore elect a representative in the Dewan Rakyat. Furthermore, there are several independent candidates running in single-member constituencies.
The leader of the party commanding a majority of support in the Dewan Rakyat is the person who is called on by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to form a government as Prime Minister, while the leader of the largest party not in government becomes the Leader of the Opposition.
The table below lists parties which were represented in the 13th Dewan Rakyat.
Last election pendulum.
The previous General Election witnessed 133 governmental seats and 89 non-governmental seats filled the Dewan Rakyat. The government side had 44 safe seats and 34 fairly safe seats, while theopposition had 33 safe seats and 18 fairly safe seats.
Opinion polls.
Note also that in the 2013 general election, the current component parties of Pakatan Harapan and Gagasan Sejahtera were competing together under an informal coalition, Pakatan Rakyat. In 2015, disagreements between those component parties over the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and their desire to implement hudud law prompted a split, with PAS leaving to form the Gagasan Sejahtera coalition. The remaining parties in Pakatan Rakyat, together with PAS splinter party Amanah and former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's PPBM, formed the Pakatan Harapan coalition. Hence, while Pakatan Rakyat won the popular vote in 2013, the component parties forming Pakatan Harapan did not.
Endorsements.
Newspapers, organisations and individuals endorsed parties or individual candidates for the election.
Conduct.
There had been many controversies even before the general election began, mostly regarding gerrymandering and the electoral boundary re-delineation in favour of the Barisan Nasional coalition. The body regulating elections in Malaysia, the Election Commission of Malaysia (which is under the control of the Prime Minister's Department), was criticised by election watchdogs, including Bersih, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia and various other organisations for electoral malpractices, arbitrary decisions and a lack of transparency.
Gerrymandering.
Opposition parties, non-governmental organisations and even politicians from the ruling party accused the government of gerrymandering, manipulating the composition of electoral seats in favour of Barisan Nasional. The opposition claims that the manipulation primarily involves merging opposition-dominated areas into large, single seats and dividing BN-favouring areas among several, smaller seats so as to favour rural voters who are more inclined to support the ruling party. An analyst with electoral reform group Tindak Malaysia estimates that this latest redelineation process would allow Barisan Nasional to regain control with just 33% of the vote.
The Electoral Integrity Project (EIP), an independent academic project based at Harvard University and the University of Sydney that studies election integrity and assigns PEI scores (Global Perceptions of Electoral Integrity) to countries across the world, had in its most recent research paper published in November 2017, ranked Malaysia's election integrity at 142nd out of 158 countries, just above Zimbabwe (143rd), Vietnam (147th) and Afghanistan (150th).
Polling day on midweek.
Many Malaysians protested the Election Commission's decision to set the Polling Day on midweek (Wednesday, 9 May) rather than to set it on a weekend (i.e. Saturday) as it had been in the previous General Elections. Some of them, including Pakatan Harapan chairman Mahathir Mohamad, PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man and Bersih chairperson Maria Chin, viewed such a decision to be unfair, undemocratic, and an attempt to discourage people overseas or interstate from returning to their hometowns to vote. In response, Najib Razak declared Wednesday a national holiday.
Overseas ballot issues.
Since the 2013 elections, overseas voting has been open to the majority of Malaysian registered voters living abroad. However, registered overseas Malaysian voters were reported to have received their ballots late, some even on election day, despite the election commission requiring their ballots to be returned before the close of polling stations to be counted as valid. As a result, many of these overseas voters organised on social media to bring theirs and other ballots back through casual couriers. The Election Commission of Malaysia currently denies trying to stop overseas Malaysians to vote.
Nomination Day controversies.
Controversies erupted after six candidates for the opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan, were disqualified from running under suspicious circumstances on Nomination Day (Saturday 28 April 2018). The most prominent disqualification was that of PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang, who the local returning officer prevented from defending his Batu parliamentary seat due to an earlier court conviction, despite a High Court judgement which made clear he was eligible to continue as an MP. A subsequent High Court appeal was thrown out, under the claim that they did not have jurisdiction over election-related matters. Chua and his party are consequently endorsing independent candidate, 22-year-old P. Prabakaran, for the seat.
Meanwhile, in Rantau, Negeri Sembilan, the state's Chief Minister Mohamad Hasan was re-elected unopposed after opposition candidate Dr. Streram Sinnasamy was prevented from entering the nomination centre, ostensibly as he did not have an entry pass, despite his claim that he was never issued one and despite the fact that there are no laws