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Malaysia’s First-Past-the-Post Electoral System 229

Alliance/BN, mathematically yielding the value of in nity. e imbalance in
vote values dropped to its lowest point in 2008, when the opposition did
exceptionally well. If we hold that democracy should be based on political
equality of citizens, then FPTP elections in Malaysia were not democratic
from 1974–2004.

Table 11.11 Imbalance in vote values between the ruling coalition and
largest opposition parties, 1955–2018 elections

Largest Votes to 2nd largest Votes to 3rd largest Votes to
opposition = 1 for opposition = 1 for opposition = 1 for
party ruling party ruling party ruling
coalition coalition coalition
1955 PN In nity PAS 2.54 NAP N/A
1959 PAS 2.34 SF 2.31 PPP 2.25
1964 SF 12.25 PAS 2.47 UDP 6.65
1969 PAS 3.39 DAP 1.79 Gerakan 1.81
1974 DAP 4.52 SNAP 1.37 Pekemas 11.39
1978 DAP 2.72 PAS 7.03 Pekemas In nity
1982 DAP 4.75 PAS 6.30 PSRM In nity
1986 DAP 2.27 PAS 40.41 PSRM In nity
1990 DAP 2.10 S46 4.48 PAS 2.28
1995 DAP 3.33 S46 4.22 PAS 2.59
1999 PAS 1.45 DAP 3.28 PKN 6.11
2004 PAS 8.15 DAP 2.58 PKR 26.08
2008 PKR 1.63 PAS 1.72 DAP 1.38
2013 PKR 1.91 DAP 1.16 PAS 1.98
2018 BN 1.07 PAS 2.36 STAR 0.45
Notes: See Table 11.8.
Sources: Wong, Chin, and Othman (2010: Table 8) with 2013 and 2018 data updated,
extracted from Election Reports published by the Election Commission of Malaysia,
various years. Derived from Table 11.10.

A Long Overdue Debate: Does FPTP Suit Malaysia?
Disproportionality is not necessarily a democratic defect if we recognise that
democracy may take di erent models, such as Westminster/majoritarian
democracy and consensus democracy, as Lijphart proposes. In his analysis
10

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