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How Malaysia Voted in 2018 23

Table 2.4 (cont’d)
GE 2018 GE 2013 Change
Votes % Votes % Votes %
SABAH 2
Barisan Nasional 335,587 39.8 434,522 55.0 –98,935 –15.2
Pakatan Harapan/ 417,435 49.5 283,866 36.0 +133,569 +13.5
Pakatan Rakyat 3
PAS 1 13,295 1.6 – – +13,295 + 1.6
Others 76,784 9.1 71,227 9.0 +5,557 – 0.1
Notes:
1. PAS was a component party in Pakatan Rakyat for GE13.
2. FT Labuan is included in the state of Sabah.
3. Parti Warisan Sabah is included in Pakatan Harapan of Sabah.

How It Happened

e sense that emerged after GE14 was that a large cross-section of Malaysians,
regardless of race, had risen up to vote out BN and Najib. If social media are
to be believed, this event also included large numbers of Malay voters who
switched sides in the late stages of the election to reject BN on account of
their trust in Dr Mahathir, PH’s intended prime minister. A senior politician
advanced the notion that PH likely gained over one-third of the Malay vote
(Lim 2018). Such a claim signi es the latent concern for the coalition of
having to prove it commanded adequate Malay support in order to appear
legitimate in the eyes of the majority voting-segment.
To assess how di erent segments voted was di cult in the initial period
after the election because large numbers of voters, particularly Malays, had
refused to disclose their non-BN party of choice in pre-election surveys,
marring the results. However, in the wake of the election, analysis of detailed
results, by polling station and stream (ballot-box, assigned by age), allowed
a far more accurate picture of voting trends. Once analysed, the data show a
starkly polarized Malaysian electorate, which, when coupled with pervasive
multicorner electoral contests, resulted in the defeat of BN and preservation of
PAS. What we uncovered at this stage was:

1. As expected, Malay voters chose the second-strongest party over BN
within their local and state context, resulting in stark di erences
within each state and between the Malay-belt states and the rest of the
peninsula;

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