Every election,1955 to today

Sixteen federal elections. Each bar is the Parliament that election produced, drawn to the same scale — so the chamber growing from 52 seats to 222 is something you can see rather than something we tell you. The notch is the majority line for that year.

All 16 carry a written, sourced account — every claim labelled for certainty, awaiting editorial review.

Photo: Wee Hong · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

222 seats, 4 elections

The same map,changing its mind

Every dot is a parliamentary seat — P.001 to P.222, the Election Commission's code for each of the 222 federal constituencies. Scroll to watch four elections recolour the country.

Why four and not sixteen. Results published seat by seat, keyed to constituency codes, exist from 2008 onward — and the 222-seat map itself only dates from the delineation before GE11. Earlier elections were fought on a smaller, differently drawn chamber, so there is no honest way to colour these dots for them. The bars below cover all sixteen; the dots cover the four the data can carry.

One further caveat: these are the same seat numbers each time, not quite the same boundaries. Peninsular Malaysia's constituencies were redrawn in an exercise gazetted in March 2018, about six weeks before GE14, and Sabah's were redrawn in 2017 — so GE12 and GE13 were fought on older maps than GE14 and GE15. How boundaries get redrawn.

222 seats · four electionsskip to all sixteen ↓

2008

GE12 (2008)

The 'political tsunami': BN lost two-thirds majority and five states; birth of Pakatan Rakyat.

The full account of this election →

2013

GE13 (2013)

BN won seats but lost the popular vote to Pakatan Rakyat.

The full account of this election →

2018

GE14 (2018)

Malaysia's first federal change of government; Pakatan Harapan defeated BN.

The full account of this election →

2022

GE15 (2022)

First hung parliament; resolved by the unity government under Anwar Ibrahim.

The full account of this election →

All sixteen

Every chamber,1955 to today

The dots above only reach back to 2008. The bars do not have that limit: each one is the Parliament an election produced, drawn to the same scale, so the chamber growing from 52 seats to 222 is something you can see. The notch is the majority line for that year. Click any row for the sourced account of that election.

1955195552First nationwide federal election before Merdeka; Alliance won 51 of 52 seats.1959GE1104First post-independence general election; Alliance government under Tunku Abdul Rahman.1964GE2144Held during Konfrontasi with Indonesia; Alliance strengthened.1969GE3144The completed 144-seat result table records Perikatan with 90 seats—below the 96 needed for a two-thirds majority; the election was followed by the 13 May violence and an emergency suspension of parliamentary rule.handled with care 1974GE4154First election contested by the new Barisan Nasional under Abdul Razak.1978GE5154Hussein Onn led Barisan Nasional (BN) at the first general election held after he succeeded Abdul Razak as Prime Minister in 1976.1982GE6154Mahathir's first general election as PM; BN won a large parliamentary majority.1986GE7177Held amid economic downturn; prelude to the UMNO Team A/Team B split.1990GE8180First serious two-front challenge: Semangat 46 with Gagasan Rakyat and APU.1995GE9192Polling was held on 24 and 25 April 1995. BN won 162 of 192 seats and 65.15 per cent of the popular vote, its highest vote share of any general election held while Mahathir Mohamad was Prime Minister.1999GE10193Post-Reformasi election in which Barisan Alternatif contested and PAS increased its parliamentary representation.2004GE11219Abdullah Badawi's high-water mark; BN's largest-ever share of seats.2008GE12222The 'political tsunami': BN lost two-thirds majority and five states; birth of Pakatan Rakyat.2013GE13222BN won seats but lost the popular vote to Pakatan Rakyat.2018GE14222Malaysia's first federal change of government; Pakatan Harapan defeated BN.2022GE15222First hung parliament; resolved by the unity government under Anwar Ibrahim.

Alliance/BNPR/PHPAS-ledOtherGPSGRSthe notch on each bar is that year's majority line

Blocs group parties by lineage, so a bar can be compared with the one above it. Pre-2008 figures come from a hand-verified historical table; 2008 onward are verified seat-for-seat against official results.