2004 Malaysian general election

2004 Malaysian general election

← 1999 21 March 2004 2008 →
All 219 seats in the Dewan Rakyat 110 seats needed for a majority
Registered	9,755,097
Turnout	72.95%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Kerk Kim Hock Abdul Hadi Awang Party BN DAP BA Last election 56.52%, 148 seats 12.74%, 10 seats 40.28%, 42 seats Seats won 198 12 8 Seat change 50 2 34 Popular vote 4,437,919 687,350 1,672,350 Percentage 63.82% 9.88% 24.05% Swing 7.30pp 2.86pp 16.23pp
Results by constituency
Prime Minister before election Abdullah Ahmad Badawi BN Prime Minister-designate Abdullah Ahmad Badawi BN

General elections were held in Malaysia on Sunday, 21 March 2004. Voting took place in all 219 parliamentary constituencies, each electing one Member of Parliament to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant house of Parliament. They were the first elections for Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as Prime Minister following his appointment in 2003. State elections also took place in 505 state constituencies in twelve of the thirteen states (except Sarawak) on the same day as Sabah took the first time election was parallel with the rest of Peninsular Malaysia.

The Barisan Nasional received 64% of the vote (but would have gained a higher vote had all seats been contested) and won 198 seats to the combined opposition parties' 20 seats, with one independent. This was the largest majority that the Barisan Nasional had won since the 1978. The dominant party in the National Front, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), won 109 seats, a gain of 37. UMNO's allies also gained seats; the Malaysian Chinese Association won 31 seats, a gain of two, and the Malaysian Indian Congress won nine seats, a gain of two.

The

The elections were held nine months earlier than required by the constitution. The constitution allowed for a parliamentary term of up to five years. Elections were required to be called three months after parliament is dissolved. The government had until the end of November 2004 to call elections.

Campaign

Candidates were nominated on 13 March, with the National Front winning 15 seats uncontested, and another two seats after the opposing candidates withdrew. The right to withdraw was only introduced as a new rule at these elections. Under this rule candidates are allowed a three-day period to withdraw following nomination day. Of the 17 parliamentary seats won uncontested, nine were in the state of Sabah, six in Sarawak and two in Johor.

PAS won a state assembly seat Senggarang in Johor for the first time, after the National Front candidate was disqualified because she was seconded by someone who was not a registered voter in the constituency that she wanted to contest. The requirement that the seconder be registered in the same constituency was only introduced in 2004. This seat was influenced by other opposition parties to gain many state seat in 2008 contest.

Conduct

The elections were marred by discrepancies, which were admitted by the electoral authorities. The head of the Election Commission (Tan Sri Ab Rashid Ab Rahman) made the statement "I have been in this line for so long... it should not have happened at all. There must be reasons why this happened." He has served in the election commission for the last five elections, and has stated that he intends to resign if a report on the discrepancies implicates him in the foul-ups.

Among the discrepancies were wrongly printed ballots, registered voters being unable to vote and wide discrepancies in votes in various seats upon re-counting the ballots.

In the seat of Sungai Lembing in state of Pahang, the Keadilan symbol was printed wrongly on the ballot paper for PAS candidate Idris Ahmad. Illiterate voters tend to rely on familiar party symbols for voting purposes as they are unable to read the candidate's names on the ballot. Voting was suspended for 5 hours before resuming. Polling was re-held for the seat on 28 March.^[1]

Results

By state

Johor

Kedah

Kelantan

Kuala Lumpur

Labuan

Malacca

Negeri Sembilan

Pahang

Penang

Perak

Perlis

Putrajaya

Sabah

Sarawak

Selangor

Terengganu

See also

• Members of the Dewan Rakyat, 11th Malaysian Parliament
• 2004 Malaysian state elections

Further reading

• Lim, Hong-Hai; Ong, Kiang-Min (2006). The 2004 General Election and the Electoral Process in Malaysia. Berlin: Lit. pp. 147–214. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)

References

External links

• The (Malaysian) Star Online
• ChannelNewsAsia
• Bernama
• Election Commission Malaysia (SPR) (in Malay)
• Results from the SPR (in Malay)