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Malaysia’s First-Past-the-Post Electoral System 237

a community feeling embattled, the obvious solution is then to trade political
pluralism for communal strength, and competition for representation.

Table 11.16 Wasted votes in West Malaysia, 1999–2018

Party 1999 (%) 2004 (%) 2008 (%) 2013 (%) 2018 (%)
UMNO 26.32 5.54 36.39 34.48 57.73
MCA 16.18 16.39 56.60 78.51 97.39
Other BN parties 15.94 7.67 82.10 76.91 91.30
PKN/PKR 84.38 96.03 45.23 49.92 6.79
DAP 67.23 55.02 13.26 6.14 1.45
Bersatu 58.32
Amanah 29.98
PAS 43.36 88.40 38.68 40.43 69.59
West Malaysia
Total 40.62 35.11 40.23 40.68 42.87
Note: Table counts P115 Batu, where PKR backed an independent candidate in 2018
as substitute for its disquali ed candidate, as won by PKR.

e dynamics of communal anxiety in Malaysia can therefore be
understood from the changing pattern of wasted votes in West Malaysia (Table
11.16). Before 2008, it was common to hear Chinese lamenting their ‘political
division’ while envying Malays’ ‘political unity’. In 1999, notwithstanding
strong pro-Anwar sentiment, only 26.3 per cent of votes for UMNO were
wasted, preserving UMNO’s still-solid grasp on political power. e main
bene ciary of Malay division then was PAS. Even PAS, though, registered 43.4
per cent of wasted votes (winning 14 per cent of federal seats), but that was far
better than the 84.4 per cent wasted for the Malay-dominant but multiethnic
Parti Keadilan Nasional (PKN, now PKR) and 67.2 per cent for the Chinese-
dominated DAP. at changed in 2008, when non-Malays, especially Chinese,
started to concentrate their votes on DAP and PKR, whose proportion of
wasted votes dropped to merely 1.5 and 6.8 per cent, respectively, by 2018.
In contrast, the three-cornered ghts for most-Malay heartland constituencies
among UMNO, PAS, and Bersatu then resulted in high wasted votes:
respectively, 57.7, 69.6, and 58.3 per cent. It makes sense that the three parties
would be talking about Malay-Muslim unity. Ideological positioning aside,
they are propelled by the punishment FPTP enacts for failure to unite target
constituencies, as DAP and PKR have done.

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