.. In this election, it won just 51% of the votes; and 63% of parliamentary seats. This was its worst performance ever in Malaysia’s 50 years of independence, and crucially, for the first time since 1969, the BN lost the two-thirds majority in parliament it needs to amend the constitution.
Nor was this a truly free and fair election. The government enjoyed many entrenched advantages: huge resources; a docile, even sycophantic, press; permission more readily granted for big rallies; a ban on the candidacy of Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister who is now the opposition’s best-known figure.
The government has denied Mr Anwar’s allegations of vote-rigging in close-fought constituencies. But sceptical opposition supporters were made even more suspicious last week when the Election Commission went back on its decision to use indelible ink to identify those who had voted. (It said it had uncovered a plot in which some of the ink had been smuggled into the country, apparently in an opposition attempt to dupe potential voters into disqualifying themselves through premature inking.)
One reason for Mr Badawi’s debacle is that, for once, the opposition did not cut its own throat. Its three main parties—Mr Anwar’s, now led by his wife; an Islamist party and the Democratic Action Party, which appeals mainly to the Chinese minority—on the whole did not compete with each other.
There are also worries about a slowing economy and rising prices; and a feeling that after 50 years of impressive economic growth, too many of the benefits have accrued to a small elite, and the Mr Badawi has not done enough to tackle corruption.
There is also anger among the minorities. Many Chinese, who make up about a quarter of the population, feel that policies of affirmative action in favour of the Malay majority are no longer necessary—if they ever were. And the Indian minority, only about 8% of the population, feel discriminated against and have turned against the BN’s main ethnic-Indian component, the Malaysian Indian Congress.
Whatever the reasons for it, the result places Mr Badawi’s future in doubt. Dr Mahathir has said he is “100% responsible” for the defeat and should resign. Unusually, Dr Mahathir admitted to a mistake of his own—having selected Mr Badawi as his successor.
Mr Badawi’s spokesman has said he has no intention of resigning. If he does not, he may come under pressure when his party, the United Malays National Organisation, holds its next congress. Since UMNO’s chief always becomes prime minister, that gathering has always been far more important than the general election in choosing Malaysia’s leaders. One of the many startling possibilities opened up by the latest election result is that this arrangement may not be immutable.
Malaysia’s election | Political tsunami? | Economist.com
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.. Anwar told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, the country’s main city, that the opposition does not have the power to abolish the New Economic Policy nationwide. But in the five opposition states the governments will “reduce race-based affirmative action policies and begin to implement a more competitive merit based system,” he said.
