Malaysian general election, 1978

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Malaysian general election, 1978
Flag of Malaysia.svg
  1974 8 July 1978 (1978-07-08) - 22 July 1978 (1978-07-22) 1982  

All 154 seats to the Dewan Rakyat
78 seats needed for a majority
Registered 5,059,689
Turnout 3,596,732 (75.3%)

 First partySecond partyThird party
  Tun Hussein Onn (MY 3rd PM).jpg Lim Kit Siang cropped.jpg PAS
Leader Hussein Onn Lim Kit Siang Asri Muda
Party Barisan Nasional DAP PAS
Leader since14 January 19761 October 19691969
Leader's seat Sri Gading Petaling No seat
Last election135 seats, 60.7%9 seats, 18.3%13 seats (part of Barisan Nasional)
Seats won131165
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 4Increase2.svg 7Decrease2.svg 8
Popular vote1,987,907664,433537,720
Percentage57.2%19.1%15.5%
SwingDecrease2.svg 3.5%Increase2.svg 0.8%

Prime Minister before election

Hussein Onn
Barisan Nasional

Prime Minister-designate

Hussein Onn
Barisan Nasional

A general election was held between Saturday, 8 July and Saturday, 22 July 1978 for members of the 5th Parliament of Malaysia. [1] Voting took place in all 154 parliamentary constituencies of Malaysia, each electing one Member of Parliament to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant house of Parliament. State elections also took place in 276 state constituencies in 10 (out of 13, except Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak) states of Malaysia on the same day.

Parliament of Malaysia bicameral legislature of Malaysia

The Parliament of Malaysia is the national legislature of Malaysia, based on the Westminster system. The bicameral parliament consists of the Dewan Rakyat and the Dewan Negara (Senate). The Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) as the Head of State is the third component of Parliament.

Kelantan State of Malaysia

Kelantan is a state of Malaysia. The capital and royal seat is Kota Bharu. The honorific of the state is Darul Naim. Kelantan is positioned in the north-east of Peninsular Malaysia. It is bordered by Narathiwat Province of Thailand to the north, Terengganu to the south-east, Perak to the west and Pahang to the south. To the north-east of Kelantan is the South China Sea.

Contents

It was Hussein Onn's first election since he became the country's third Prime Minister. His Barisan Nasional Party emerged victorious with 131 of the 154 seats in Parliament. Voter turnout was 75.3%.

Hussein Onn Malaysian politician

Tun Hussein bin Dato' Onn,, was the third Prime Minister of Malaysia, serving in this role from 1976 to 1981 and also served for Sri Gading constituency. Born in Johor Bahru, Johor, to Dato' Onn Jaafar and Datin Halimah Hussein, he is of 3/4 Malay and 1/4 Circassian ancestry. He was granted the soubriquet "Bapa Perpaduan".

Prime Minister of Malaysia head of government of Malaysia

The Prime Minister of Malaysia is the head of government and the highest political office in Malaysia. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong appoints Prime Minister as a Member of Parliament (MP) who, in his opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of a majority of MPs. The Prime Minister chairs the Cabinet of Malaysia, the de facto executive branch of government. On 18 October 2018, 7th Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, announced a two-term limit to all Cabinet Profolio.

Barisan Nasional right-wing political coalition founded in 1973

The National Front is a political coalition in Malaysia that was founded in 1973 as a coalition of right-wing and centre parties. They are currently the largest opposition coalition in the country's Dewan Rakyat.

Results

Dewan Rakyat

As expected, Barisan Nasional comfortably maintained its majority in the Malaysian Parliament and thus, gave the Prime Minister the power to form a government with a free hand. Despite the victory, BN actually lost four seats out of 154 seats to the opposition.

The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) withdrew from BN in the midst of the 1977 Kelantan Emergency over disagreements with UMNO over the running of the state government of Kelantan, which PAS had controlled since the first post-independence general election in 1959. With the support of UMNO, detractors within PAS split with the party and formed the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Front (BERJASA). In the election, PAS lost the control of the state for the first time to the UMNO-BERJASA alliance within BN. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has been credited for UMNO's victory in Kelantan.

The 1977 Kelantan Emergency took place in the state of Kelantan in Malaysia. The state of emergency was declared by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on 8 November 1977 upon the request of the federal government following a political impasse and street violence in Kelantan. This was the fifth and last declaration of emergency in Malaya and Malaysia after the 1948-1960 Malayan Emergency, 1962 Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, 1966 Sarawak constitutional crisis and the 1969 13 May Incident.

Pan-Malaysian Islamic Front

The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Front is a political party in Malaysia.

The opposition garnered 42.8% of total votes. In spite of that, the opposition as one won only 23 seats. Democratic Action Party won the largest slice of the pie among the opposition parties and hence, its leader Lim Kit Siang retained his position as the leader of the opposition that he had obtained four years earlier.

Lim Kit Siang A Malaysian politician

Lim Kit Siang is a Malaysian politician and party leader. He is a prominent leader of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component party of the current ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in Malaysia. He had previously served as the Opposition Leader of Malaysia for 1 year (1973-1974), another 24 years (1975-1999) before assuming the role again for a four-year stint from 2004-2008.

Candidates were returned unopposed in nine constituencies. The registered electors from these constituencies therefore did not cast ballots.

e    d  Summary of the 8 – 22 July 1978 Malaysian Dewan Rakyat election results
PartyVoteSeats
Votes%Won%+/–
National Front [lower-alpha 1] BN1,987,90757.2313185.06-4
United Malays National Organisation UMNO7045.45+8
Malaysian Chinese Association MCA1711.04-2
Sabah People's United Front BERJAYA95.84New
Sarawak National Party SNAP45,21895.840
United Traditional Bumiputera Party PBB52,22285.190
Sarawak United People's Party SUPP64,09963.90-1
United Sabah National Organisation USNO53.25-8
Malaysian People's Movement Party Gerakan42.60-1
Malaysian Indian Congress MIC31.95-1
People's Progressive Party PPP00.00-1
Democratic Action Party DAP664,43319.131610.39+7
Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party PAS537,72015.4853.25-8
Sarawak People's Organisation SAPO10,1500.2910.65New
Malaysian People's Socialist Party PSRM00.000
Other parties112,8503.2500.000
Sarawak Native People's Party PAJAR35,00900.00New
Parti Umat Sarawak UMAT3,89800.00New
Parti Negara Rakyat Sarawak NEGARA86100.00New
IndependentsIND160,3704.6210.65+1
Valid votes3,473,430
Invalid/blank votes 123,302
Total (turnout: 75.3%)3,596,732100.00154100.000
Did not vote 1,462,957
Registered voters 5,059,689
Voting age population (aged 21 years and above)6,067,230
Malaysian population 12,303,000
Source: Nohlen et al. ,
  1. Contested using dacing election symbol on the ballot papers.

Results by state

State Assemblies

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References

  1. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p152 ISBN   0-19-924959-8