Malaysia’s ruling National Front coalition won a narrow victory Sunday, election commission officials announced, as voters chose continuity and experience over opposition calls for reform.
The 13-party National Front secured a simple majority, winning 112 of 222 parliamentary seats. It was the coalition’s 13th consecutive general election victory since the country gained independence from Britain in 1957.
Prime Minister Najib Razak, 59, head of the majority United Malays National Organization party, led the ruling coalition to victory, emphasizing the message to his largely rural conservative Muslim Malay base that the inexperienced opposition would ruin the economy and erode national security.
The country’s population is about 60 percent ethnic Malay Muslim, 25 percent ethnic Chinese, and 15 percent ethnic Indians and other minorities.
Voter turnout was about 80 percent, the highest ever for a Malaysian election. Sunday’s vote saw 2.6 million young Malaysians vote for the first time, a potentially decisive bloc that both sides courted using social media and other online tools.
The opposition coalition, led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, 65, appealed to ethnic minorities and better-educated city dwellers with a pledge to clean up politics and end race-based affirmative action. Younger Malaysians, in particular, have bridled under a legacy of alleged nepotism, insider political deals and corruption scandals.
Ultimately, analysts said, the National Front’s economic legacy won the day. The ruling coalition has delivered economic growth averaging more than 5 percent a year for decades while pursuing a goal of turning Malaysia into an industrialized nation by 2020.
“In the end, people have to have an economic reason to move against the government,” said Azmi Sharom, a law professor at Kuala Lumpur’s University of Malaya. “Things are not that bad, even though the rich-poor gap is serious.”
Although the loss could end Anwar’s political career, analysts said, the opposition’s strong showing is a warning to a government that’s been slipping in the polls. In 2008, it lost its two-thirds majority for the first time, blunting its ability to pass legislation and enact constitutional changes.
“This win tells us people opted for security,” said Norani Othman, a sociology professor at the National University of Malaysia. “But they’re also letting the incumbent government know it’s time for real change, not more rhetoric, on issues like religious freedom, religious tolerance.”
Others were skeptical the government would heed the wake-up call. “I don’t think they will reform,” Sharom said. “They’ve already had enough opportunities over the past five years. The 2008 election gave them a real shock, but they only made cosmetic changes.”
Also benefiting the ruling party, analysts said, was the disproportionate role in Malaysia’s parliamentary system of rural voters — a demographic stronghold for the government — as well as the so-called first-past-the-post system of counting votes that can magnify the impact of even a narrow victory.
The two-week campaign was tarnished by allegations of vote rigging and related abuses, including an opposition charge that the government flew at least 40,500 people on chartered flights from the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak to parts of the peninsular mainland to boost the government’s chances of winning. “These irregularities have cost us many seats, particularly those with narrow margins,” Anwar said at a news conference early this morning.
The ruling coalition acknowledged arranging some flights but said it was part of a normal voter turnout drive.
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