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20 Ibrahim Su an and Lee Tai De

(based on GE13 results) in as many as six state constituencies, by reallocating
pro-BN villages and localities to marginal constituencies.
e result of this exercise can be seen in Table 2.2, which shows the number
of parliamentary districts by ethnic composition in Peninsular Malaysia over
the period 1986–2018. Note that the number of parliamentary districts
with at least 70 per cent Malay voters increased from 66 (40 per cent of all
peninsular constituencies) in 2013 to 71 (43 per cent) in 2018; those with a
still-sizable Malay majority of 60 per cent or more increased from 88 in 2013
to 102 in 2018. At the same time, the number of mixed constituencies, in
which no ethnic group constituted a majority, declined from 29 to 24 in the
same period.

Table 2.2 Parliamentary constituencies by ethnicity, 1986–2018

2018 2013 2004 1999 1990 1986
Malay majority >70% 71 66 60 52 47 47
60%–70% 31 22 22 19 18 18
50%–60% 15 26 33 27 27 27
No ethnicity > 50% 24 29 26 22 14 14
Chinese majority 50%–60% 10 7 8 8 11 11
60%–70% 3 4 4 6 6 6
>70% 11 11 12 10 9 9
165 165 165 144 132 132

It should be noted that, per the electoral rolls for GE13 and GE14, between
2013 and 2018, the Malay share of the electorate increased slightly, from 60.4
per cent to about 62 per cent. However that increase did not materially alter the
composition of most constituencies because the increase in voter-registration
between 2013 and 2018 was much smaller than anticipated. e electoral rolls
reveal that only 2 million new voters registered during the period, compared to
4 million between 2008 and 2013. is decline was partly due to voter apathy,
especially in the early part of the period, and partly to di culties imposed on
political parties that sought to register new voters: after 2013, the Election
Commission barred political parties’ registering voters. As a result, over 4.5
million people who were of age did not register to vote in 2018.
Although no tangible evidence has as yet been made available, at the time,
conventional wisdom among observers and practitioners of Malaysian politics
strongly suspected tacit cooperation between PAS and UMNO in the lead-up

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