The election outcome, however, was a letdown for the PR.
The BN was given the mandate to rule for another 5 years.
The BN’s victory however was no walk in the park.
For the first time in its 56-year rule the BN lost the popular vote, garnering 47.4% of total votes with the PR taking 50.9%
of votes.
The BN also now rules with a smaller number of parliamentary seats. It won only 133 seats in Malaysia’s 222-seat parliament, the Dewan Rakyat, 5 seats less than the 138 seats it garnered in the 2008 elections. The PR on the other hand, improved their seats in parliament taking 89 seats. Besides taking 89 parliamentary seats, the PR also won sizeable number of seats in the 12 of the 13 of Malaysia’s state legislatures that were contested in the election.
The PR now controls 3 state legislatures (Selangor, Penang and Kelantan) and this coalition improved on its 2008 performance by gaining a two-thirds majority in each of the three states. The PR also made a huge dent in the
state of Johor – long a stronghold of the BN, specifically its largest coalition partner, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
In Johor, the PR won 5 parliamentary seats and took an impressive 18 seats in the 56-seat Johor state legislature, a huge improvement from the 2008 election, where the PR won only 6 state seats and 1 parliamentary seat in Johor.