BN loses over half of votes in peninsular Malaysia

March 11(New Straits Times) -- BN loses over half of votes in peninsular Malaysia

BARISAN NASIONAL'S (BN) losses could not have looked sadder: Five states lost to the opposition - up from one in 2004 - and a staggering 28 per cent drop in the number of parliamentary seats held, from 198 to 140.

But it does get worse.

A tally of the actual votes cast for the ruling coalition shows that though it had seized 63 per cent of the 222 parliamentary seats, it had won barely half the 7.9 million votes cast on Saturday - 51 per cent.

The only thing that helped BN inch past the halfway mark was the votes from Sabah and Sarawak. The high proportion of non-Malay bumiputeras there make for BN strongholds, which is why the coalition managed to win all but two of the 57 seats there with 61.5 per cent of the votes.

Political parties in East Malaysia are notorious for changing sides, though BN support has been consistently high since the mid-1990s.

When these two states are taken out of the equation, BN's share of total votes on the peninsular drops below the halfway mark to 49 per cent - the worst since 1969.

This means that more than half of the citizens on Peninsular Malaysia voted against the government, a fact that could cast doubts on BN's legitimacy to lead the country.

'As far as the parliamentary results are concerned, the ruling coalition should have done even more badly than what they achieved,' said political science professor Mohammad Agus Yusoff from the National University of Malaysia.

Opposition groups have long blamed gerrymandering for discrepancies between popular vote and seats, claiming that polling districts favour the government.

In 2004, BN secured 91 per cent of the 219 parliamentary seats with only 63 per cent of the popular vote.

Still, BN cannot hide from the stark truth that it has lost much support from Chinese and Indian voters disenchanted with what they saw as an unrelenting series of actions discriminating against religious minorities.

Figures by independent analysts indicate a huge swing of votes among these two communities, which make up about one-third of the 27 million strong population.

An estimated 35 per cent of Chinese voted for BN on Saturday, a dramatic drop of 30 percentage points from the high of 65 per cent in 2004.

The drop for Indian voters was even larger: it dropped 35 percentage points from 82 per cent in 2004 to 47 per cent this year.

The sharp drop is reflected in the loss of 30 seats by BN's Chinese and Indian partners - the Malaysian Chinese Association, Gerakan and Malaysian Indian Congress.

The tally of seats held by Malay, Chinese or Indian BN MPs tells a similar story, especially when discounting the East Malaysia effect.

In 2004, 42 of BN's seats were held by Chinese MPs, and 10 by Indians on the peninsular. It plummeted to 17 and three last weekend respectively - a loss of 25 Chinese and seven Indian MPs.

In contrast, the DAP and PKR managed to put 16 more Chinese and 11 more Indians into Parliament.

Not that the BN managed to successfully retain its traditional support from Malay voters. It not only lost some of the Malay vote - 63 to 58 per cent - but also lost 28 Malay MPs on the peninsular.

The coalition also appeared to perform poorly in urban areas, which tend to be hit hardest by rising crime and inflation. In the financial capital of Kuala Lumpur, BN got just 38 per cent of all votes cast - its lowest and even less than in the five states it lost.

'There is great disfavour in the urban population that we can see in the popular vote, which is more reflective of public sentiment,' said director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies think-tank Tricia Yeoh.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE