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Cross-ethnic Vote-pooling in West Malaysia 65

of the rising tide of Malay discontent following the onset of the Reformasi
movement. Analysis of the 1999 election outcome indicates that both Malay
and non-Malay votes were more or less evenly split between BN and BA,
depending on constituency characteristics (SIRD 2000). PAS captured the
state government of Terengganu while maintaining its grip on the state of
Kelantan. BN only barely retained its control over Kedah. Table 4.2 shows
that BN lost more frequently to BA where either Malay or non-Malay voters
constituted 80 per cent or more of the electorate. BN performed best in
ethnically mixed seats where the proportion of Malay voters was within the
range of 30–80 per cent (SIRD 2000).

Table 4.2 Electoral performance of BN and its opponents in relation to
ethnic composition of constituencies (1999, 2008, 2018)

Malay voters Number of Parliamentary seats won by coalition in
(%) West Malaysia
1999 2008 2018
Barisan Barisan Barisan Pakatan Barisan Pakatan
Nasional Alternatif Nasional Rakyat Nasional Harapan
0–19.9 4 7 0 13 0 12
20–39.9 14 3 5 11 1 17
40–59.9 45 0 25 22 3 29
60–79.9 27 4 26 17 18 34
80–99.9 12 28 29 17 27 5
Total 102 42 85 80 49 97
Sources: SIRD 2000; 2008 data compiled by Kenneth Cheng; 2018 data compiled by
Wong Chin Huat, Nidhal Rawa, and Kenneth Cheng.

In 2004, barely four months after succeeding Dr Mahathir, Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi went to the polls to seek a fresh electoral mandate. He
skilfully harnessed the popular desire for political reform and turned the tables
on the opposition, who had made gains with their own reformist platform in
1999. Islam, too, became a core electoral issue. Blinded by their popularity in
the last general election, PAS leaders aggressively advocated for an Islamic state
agenda, showcasing their enactment of hudud laws in Terengganu after they
took control of the state government in 1999. eir share of parliamentary
seats fell from a high of 27 to 6. PAS also lost control of the Terengganu state
government. DAP, which had stayed out of the BA, improved only slightly,
gaining 2 parliamentary seats (one of them in Sarawak), for a total of 12. e

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