GE13 (2013) — Malaysian Politics

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

5 May 2013222 seats112 for a majority

“Alliance/BN” held 133 of 222 seats — past the 112 needed to govern.

Alliance/BN133

PR/PH89

every seat, 2013

the road to this election

GE13 followed the 2008 election, in which BN lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority and PR won 82 seats. Najib Razak became Prime Minister in 2009; PR brought together PKR, DAP and PAS after the 2008 election.

The Dewan Rakyat was dissolved on 3 April 2013. Candidate nominations took place on 20 April, beginning the formal 15-day campaign, and voters went to the polls on 5 May.

In pre-election commentary, Liow expected the campaign to centre on competing priorities: BN on stability, continuity and economic growth, and PR on corruption, the cost of living and minority rights. Later academic work also identifies good governance, corruption and Bumiputera privileges among the campaign’s central themes.

BN retained government with 133 seats to PR’s 89, although PR had the larger national vote total. MPs are elected in individual constituencies, so those national totals do not allocate Dewan Rakyat seats. Najib was sworn in the following day as Prime Minister for a second term.

the working

What the sources say

6 claims, each carrying the certainty label written beside it in the knowledge base, and the source it came from.

established

Najib Razak announced the post-GE13 federal Cabinet on 15 May 2013; contemporary published lists identify 30 ministerial posts and 27 deputy-ministerial posts across 24 ministries.

Astro Awani Bernama Images

established

The Dewan Rakyat was dissolved on 3 April 2013. Nomination was on 20 April and polling on 5 May, creating a 15-day formal campaign period.

Parliament of Malaysia

established

In pre-election commentary, Joseph Chinyong Liow anticipated that BN would emphasise stability, continuity and economic growth, while PR would focus on corruption, the cost of living and minority rights.

Joseph Chinyong Liow

established

BN won 133 of the 222 parliamentary seats and PR won 89; BN received 47.4% of votes and PR 50.9%.

ElectionData.MY

established

Malaysia elects MPs constituency by constituency; a national popular-vote total does not allocate Dewan Rakyat seats. The EC chairman said after GE13 that the party certified to have won the parliamentary contest was entitled to form the federal government.

ElectionData.MY Astro Awani

established

Najib Razak was sworn in for a second term as Prime Minister on 6 May 2013, after BN retained a parliamentary majority.

Al Jazeera

where accounts differ

Why it turned out this way — and who says so

Explanations for an election result are arguments, not facts. Each of these is attributed to the person or study that made it, and set beside the others without a winner being picked.

Whether the result was principally an ethnic or an urban vote shift

contested

Prime Minister and BN chairperson Najib Razak characterised the result as a “Chinese tsunami”.. Political analyst Shamsul Amri Baharuddin instead identified Malay middle-class support for PR in urban areas; later research by Jason Wei Jian Ng, Gary John Rangel, Santha Vaithilingam and Subramaniam S. Pillay found both ethnicity and urbanisation effects, and said the distinction could not be conclusively separated because urban constituencies and Chinese population shares were closely correlated..

how this is labelled: contested — Najib’s characterisation; contested — analysts’ and retrospective academic framing

Malaysiakini Boo Su-Lyn Ng et al.

contested

advanced by Andreas Ufen and by Ng, Rangel, Vaithilingam and Pillay, who argued that BN’s rural-seat strength and unequal electorate sizes helped turn a lower national vote share into a parliamentary majority.

how this is labelled: contested — retrospective academic framing

Andreas Ufen Ng et al.

contested

advanced by political scientist Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani, who identified PR’s stronger use of social media as a major contributor to its result, alongside a large urban and suburban shift toward PR.

how this is labelled: contested — retrospective academic framing

Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani

Whether GE13’s wider campaign conditions were fair

contested

IDEAS and the Centre for Public Policy Studies, whose observers were accredited by the EC, concluded that the formal process from nomination to polling proceeded without major glitches but that media bias, constituency-size inequality, electoral-roll concerns and use of government machinery made GE13 only partially free and not fair. The EC chairman responded to post-election criticism by saying that claims of no EC improvement were false and describing the electoral roll used for GE13 as the cleanest possible.

how this is labelled: contested — observer assessment and EC response

IDEAS and CPPS Astro Awani

still being researched

What this page does not yet know

What accounts for retrospective GE12 baselines of 138 or 135 seats, given that ElectionData.MY reports BN won 140 of 222 seats at GE12 while a legacy SPR-hosted results table displays 139.

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