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Malaysians will flock to the polling stations on Saturday, March 8, to determine the make-up of the national legislature and twelve state assemblies in the heavyweight South Asian nation.
Here are some key facts about the elections, the 12th in Malaysia's history:
Election Process
After the creation of three new constituencies, 222 seats are up to the grabs in the national legislature.
Under the winner-takes-all system, the party that wins the majority of the legislature's seats will form the federal government.
Candidates are also vying for 576 assembly seats in 13 states and territories, except for Sarawak which held its state election in 2006.
The number of assembly representatives varies between the different states, with as many as 62 electorates in the northwestern state Sarawak and as little as 15 in the northernmost state of Perlis.
Main Players
- Barisan Nasional (National Front): the long-ruling coalition of 14 parties whose main component is Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's United Malays National Organization (UMNO).
The coalition holds 200 of the 219 seats in the outgoing legislature.
- Parti Tindakan Demokratik: the Democratic Action Party or DAP, is Malaysia's largest secular, multi-racial opposition party. It has a core constituency that consists of urban non-Muslim voters, and draws large support from the Malaysian Chinese.
DAP currently has 12 seats in the national legislature.
- Parti Islam Se Malaysia: the party, commonly known as PAS, is an Islamic political party in Malaysia. The party enjoys strong support from northern rural and conservative area such as Kelantan and Terengganu.
PAS holds seven seats in the legislature.
- Parti Keadilan Rakyat: Keadilan or the National Justice Party is a centrist political party formed in 2003. Keadilan is currently led by Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the wife of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
The party has solely one seat in the parliament.
All in all, there are a total of 27 parties in Malaysia.
Voters
The voting age in Malaysia is 21.
Only registered voters may vote in elections. Typically any Malaysian citizen may register as a candidate as long as he is not disqualified from doing so.
Voters choose one candidate for parliament and one for the state assembly
Around 10.3 million voters registered for the 2004 polls.
The Election Commission of Malaysia (SPR) said in January it wanted to sign up 4.5 million eligible voters, mostly youths, before the next polls.
"Phantom voters" — those who participate in elections using the details of dead — were a feature of the 1999 and 2004 elections criticized by the opposition.
In 2006, the Election Commission announced that in an effort to reduce instances of phantom voting, 180,000 dead voters would be purged from the electoral roll.
Election Monitoring
Elections are supervised by the seven-member politically neutral Election Commission of Malaysia (SPR).
SPR members are appointed by the king.
Malaysians for Free and Fair Election (MAFREL), a non-partisan and independent election observation organization, will also organize a nationwide monitoring effort for 2008 election.
Opposition parties, however, complain that the SPR is in favor of the main ruling party.
Opposition also complains that the mainstream press is pro-government and gives opposition statements relatively thin coverage.
Former Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim, a political dissident who was sacked and jailed in 1998 on corruption and sodomy charges, has condemned the government for holding the snap polls before he is eligible to stand for public office in April.
Expected Results
The outcome of the election is widely seen as a foregone conclusion, with the Barisan Nasional coalition tipped to win.
The ruling coalition has governed Malaysia in various forms since independence in 1957.
But analysts agree that the repeat of 2004 election, when the coalition won more than 90 per cent of parliamentary seats, is unlikely.
Issues like rising prices, weak economy growth and racial tensions are expected to cut into the coalition's majority.
With an estimated 800,000 members, the Islamic party PAS is likely to be the main election rival of the ruling coalition.
The party, which suffered a humiliating defeat in 2004 ballot that left it in control of only the northern state of Kelantan, has been in a drive to brush its image ahead of the election.
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