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Elite Fragmentation and Party Splits 49

ethnic group, Malays formed the largest group of voters, at 54.1 per cent,
followed by Chinese (28.1 per cent), Indians (7.1 per cent), Sabah natives (5
per cent), Sarawak natives (4.1 per cent), peninsular indigenous peoples (0.6
per cent), and others (1.0 per cent) (Merdeka Center 2018). In GE14, there
were 122 Malay-majority seats (55 per cent), 29 Chinese-majority seats (13 per
cent), 19 Sabah native-majority seats (9 per cent), 18 Sarawak native-majority
seats (8 per cent) and 34 mixed seats (15 per cent). Although Indians make up
about 7 per cent of total voters, given geographic dispersal, there are no Indian-
majority seats. Instead, there are 10 seats with about 20 per cent Indian voters,
mostly located in the states of Perak, Selangor, and Negeri Sembilan. (Almost
all peninsular seats, however, include Indian voters, in shares ranging from
1–19 per cent.) Malays are proportionately represented in parliament, while
Sabah and Sarawak natives are signi cantly over-represented. On the other
hand, ethnic Chinese are grossly under-represented due to malapportionment
and gerrymandering (see Wong’s chapter, this volume).
Just prior to GE14, Malaysia’s parliament passed a redelineation of electoral
boundaries that was criticized for giving added advantage to the incumbent
government (Wong, this volume). Although the redelineation did not increase
the number of parliamentary and state seats, it did change the boundaries and
names of quite a signi cant number of seats, including Malay-majority seats.
Not only did the number of Malay-majority seats increase from 119 to 122
from GE13 to GE14, but the number of seats with only a slim 50–60 per
cent Malay majority declined in favour of seats with a higher proportion of
Malay voters (see Table 3.1). is shift represented a deliberate strategy on the
part of BN to win GE14 by reducing the proportion of non-Malay voters in
Malay-majority seats since non-Malays were expected to continue to vote for
the opposition, while Malays, faced with a divided opposition, were expected
to vote for the ruling party.
is tactic represented a change in strategy. In the past, BN had sought
to create more mixed seats, so as to take advantage of non-Malay support
for the coalition. After 2008, though, the ight of non-Malay voters from
BN introduced ‘tsunami’ to the Malaysian political lexicon. By 2018, UMNO
assumed it would be more advantageous to have more predominantly Malay
seats. As Table 3.1 shows, about 40 per cent of Malay seats are considered
predominantly Malay (more than 80 per cent Malay voters); these seats are
mostly in predominantly Malay states such as Kelantan, Terengganu, and
Perlis. However, the distribution of Malay seats ranges from 0 in Sabah to
17 in Johor (see Table 3.2). Although Johor has the most Malay seats, that
number represents only about two-thirds of the state’s total. All the seats in ve

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