Malaysian coalition holds on to power

Malaysia’s governing coalition won national elections yesterday to extend its 56 years of unbroken rule.

Prime Minister Najib Razak’s National Front coalition fended off the strongest opposition it has ever faced but exposed vulnerabilities in the process.

The Election Commission reported that it captured 127 of Malaysia’s 222 parliamentary seats.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s three-party alliance seized 77 seats, and other races were too close to call.

It was the National Front’s 13th consecutive victory in general elections since independence from Britain in 1957.

It faced its most unified challenge ever from an opposition that hoped to capitalise on allegations of arrogance, abuse of public funds and racial discrimination against the government.

Mr Najib urged all Malaysians to accept his coalition’s victory.

“We have to show to the world that we are a mature democracy,” he said.

“Despite the extent of the swing against us, (the National Front) did not fall.”

Mr Anwar signalled the opposition might dispute the results, saying “irregularities” cost his alliance numerous seats with narrow margins.

The Election Commission estimated more than 10 million voted for a record turnout of 80%.

Though it retained power, the National Front is weaker than it was at its peak in 2004, when it won 90% of Parliament’s seats, and about the same as it was before the vote, when it held 135 seats.

Its hopes were dashed of regaining the two-thirds majority that it held for years but lost in 2008.

Three well-known Cabinet ministers and at least one state chief minister were likely to lose their parliamentary seats.

The Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-biggest party in the ruling coalition, saw many of its candidates defeated as Malaysia’s ethnic Chinese minority community continued to abandon the National Front.

Mr Najib said one of his priorities would be a “national reconciliation” plan to ease what he called a worrying trend of political polarisation.

He did not give details, but noted that ethnic Chinese, who comprise about a quarter of Malaysia’s population, turned away from the National Front in what he called a “Chinese tsunami”.

An opposition win would have been a remarkable comeback for Mr Anwar, a former deputy prime minister who was fired in 1998 and later jailed on corruption and sex charges that he says were fabricated by his political enemies. He was released from jail in 2004.

Mr Anwar and other opposition leaders voiced suspicions yesterday about electoral fraud.

They claimed the National Front used foreign migrants from Bangladesh, the Philippines and Indonesia to vote unlawfully.

The government and electoral authorities denied the allegations, saying private donors had paid for legitimate voters to fly home.

The opposition stayed in control of northern Penang state, one of Malaysia’s wealthiest territories, and remained strong in Kuala Lumpur, where middle-class voters have clamoured for national change.

The National Front’s held firm in many traditional rural strongholds, especially in Borneo, where Mr Anwar’s alliance had been hoping to make major inroads to bolster its chances of victory.