After much bated breath, it now appears that the 15th Malaysian General Elections has now resulted in a hung parliament. This essentially means that no parties have been able to successfully declare a simple majority of 112 seats in Parliament, and pacts will have to be formed between different sides in order to achieve a decisive win in numbers.
Pakatan Harapan ( DAP, PKR, Amanah, MUDA, and United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation) led the charge with 81 seats, closely followed by Perikatan Nasional (BERSATU, PAS, STAR, SAPP, and GERAKAN) with 73 seats. Meanwhile, former ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (UMNO, MCA, MIC) has conceded defeat, securing only 30 seats.
East Malaysian parties GPS and GRS managed to win 22 seats and 6 seats respectively, while Parti Warisan Sabah and Parti Bangsa Malaysia secured three seats and one seat respectively. The remainder of the seats were won over by independent parties.
Malaysia’s electoral process is follows the ‘first past the post’ premise. Which means that any party who secures a divisive majority of 112 in the Dewan Rakyat, or the Lower House, will be declared the winner of the election and go on to form the new government. Representatives in the Lower House are elected by citizens from single-member constituencies delineated based on population.
GE15 officially ends with a hung parliament
This year’s snap elections were called after caretaker Prime Minister Ismail Sabri announced the dissolution of Malaysia’s 14th Parliament back in October amid rumours of political infighting from within his party, UMNO, and their leadership ranks. The decision to do so was met with resistance from not only members of the Opposition bloc, but as well as experts and non-governmental aid organisations who have raised concerns over the proximity of the polls with Malaysia’s monsoon season, which typically heralds incidents of flash floods.
Around 21 million Malaysians are eligible to cast their ballots this year, which includes some 5.8 million new voters that were added into the electoral roll upon the passing of the Undi18 bill. Consequrntly, this marks the highest voter turnout of any General Election in Malaysia’s history, with the Election Commission reporting that as many as 70%, or around 14.82 million of the 21.17 million eligible voters, have already cast their ballots by 4.00pm on Saturday (November 19th, 2022).
As for the battleground itself, competition has been stiff throughout GE15 among prospecting political hopefuls, with 817 male and 127 female candidates vying for one of the 222 available Parliamentary seats.
At this point in time, it remains to be seen how each of the political coalitions are expected to approach negotiations to break through this impasse. Earlier, leaders of Sabah and Sarawak have said that they are in discussions to create a ‘Borneo bloc’ that will back any Federal Government that will prove beneficial to East Malaysia.
Barisan Nasional has also hinted at putting their weight behind whichever party can provide a stable government, and says that they are willing to put aside past differences for the sake of national interest.
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