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Hussein Onn led Barisan Nasional (BN) at the first general election held after he succeeded Abdul Razak as Prime Minister in 1976.

8 July 1978154 seats78 for a majority

“Alliance/BN” held 130 of 154 seats — past the 78 needed to govern.

Alliance/BN130
PR/PH16
PAS-led5
Other3

There is no seat-by-seat map for this election: the open dataset behind those maps only goes back to 2008. The chamber above comes from a checked historical table.

the road to this election

Hussein Onn called the election in June 1978, after serving for more than two years as Prime Minister following Abdul Razak’s death. Nomination was held on 21 June, leaving a short campaign before the main polling day of 8 July. Public political rallies were banned during that period.

The party landscape had changed since 1974. PAS had been expelled from BN in December 1977. The preceding Kelantan emergency followed an internal PAS crisis after a no-confidence vote against Menteri Besar Mohamad Nasir; a Universiti Malaya historical study records that PAS was rejected in the March 1978 Kelantan state election.

The election therefore placed BN, led by Hussein Onn, against a changed opposition field. DAP increased from nine to 16 parliamentary seats, while PAS won five after having previously been part of BN. Two independents and SAPO won the three remaining seats.

After polling, Hussein Onn continued as Prime Minister and announced a new Cabinet on 27 July.

the working

What the sources say

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

established

Parliament was dissolved in June 1978, more than a year before its term was due to end; nomination day was 21 June. The campaign lasted about two weeks and public political rallies were banned.

Inter-Parliamentary Union

established

Hussein Onn had succeeded Abdul Razak as Prime Minister after Razak’s death in January 1976. PAS had been expelled from BN in December 1977; the remaining BN coalition comprised 10 political groups led by UMNO.

Inter-Parliamentary Union

established

The Kelantan emergency followed an internal PAS crisis after a 1977 no-confidence vote against Menteri Besar Mohamad Nasir; a Universiti Malaya historical study records that PAS was then rejected by voters in the March 1978 Kelantan state election.

Md. Rozimi Mohd Nasir

established

BN won 130 of 154 seats, DAP 16 and PAS 5. Two independents and the Sarawak People’s Organisation (SAPO) won one seat each; DAP gained seven seats compared with the previous election.

ElectionData.MYInter-Parliamentary Union

established

Hussein Onn remained Prime Minister and announced his new Cabinet on 27 July 1978.

Inter-Parliamentary Union

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.

How PAS’s losses should be explained

contested

The Universiti Malaya study foregrounds the 1977 no-confidence crisis involving Kelantan’s Menteri Besar and PAS’s internal problems, and links its account to PAS’s defeat in the March 1978 Kelantan state election. It does not establish a single cause for PAS’s five parliamentary seats in July.

how this is labelled: contested — authors’ historical framing

Md. Rozimi Mohd Nasir

How to interpret BN’s majority

uncertain

The contemporaneous IPU record establishes the short campaign, rally ban and BN’s 10-party composition, but does not assign a causal weight to any of those factors. This page has not found a verified 1978-specific account setting out BN’s own explanation alongside an opposition account; it therefore does not infer one.

how this is labelled: uncertain

Inter-Parliamentary Union

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