Going in to Saturday’s elections, everyone thought that the opposition in Malaysia will do better than they did the last time. But wow, not this good!
The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) suffered their biggest electoral upset in about 40 years, losing their two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time since 1969. BN managed to win only 139 seats in the 222-member Parliament, but what’s worse was that they lost 5 states to the opposition. Penang, Selangor, Kedah, Perak and Kelantan all fell to the opposition. This after losing just Kelantan in the last elections.
I can’t help but feel a little sorry for Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The biggest reason for the BN losses was the loss of votes from Malaysian Chinese and Indians, both Gerakan and MIC were just slaughtered in the polls. UMNO actually did quite well on it’s own but their BN’s component parties were just destroyed on Saturday.
Just it’s back to the drawing board for BN, and with calls already being heard for Abdullah to resign, Malaysians are in for an interesting time.
2 comments:
BN's snap election didn't work. Their rhetoric fell on deaf ears. The Malaysian middle class saw the blight in the government and wanted change.
Now let see if the change is for the good or the bad. A lot will depend on if Anwar can keep the opposition together
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