Malaysian general election, 1999

Malaysian general election, 1999

29 November 1999 (1999-11-29)
All 193 seats to the Dewan Rakyat 97 seats needed for a majority
Registered	9,564,071
Turnout	6,631,094 (69.3%)
First party Second party   BA Leader Mahathir Mohammad Fadzil Noor Party Barisan Nasional Barisan Alternatif Leader since 16 July 1981 (1981-07-16) 24 October 1999 (1999-10-24) Leader's seat Kubang Pasu Pendang Last election 162 seats, 65.2% 30 seats, 32.8% Seats won 147 45 Seat change 15 15 Popular vote 3,748,511 2,667,818 Percentage 56.5% 40.2% Swing 8.7% 7.4%
Prime Minister before election Mahathir Mohammad Barisan Nasional Prime Minister-designate Mahathir Mohamad Barisan Nasional

A general election was held on Monday, 29 November 1999 for members of the 10th Parliament of Malaysia. Voting took place in all 193 parliamentary constituencies of Malaysia, each electing one Member of Parliament to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant house of Parliament. State elections also took place in 394 state constituencies in 11 out of 13 states of Malaysia (except Sabah and Sarawak) on the same day.

Results

Parliamentary results

6,631,094 out of 9,564,071 registered voters cast their vote in this election. Although Barisan Nasional maintained its majority in Parliament, its overall popular vote dropped to roughly 56%. The parliamentary results are as follows:

 Summary of the 29 November 1999 Malaysian Dewan Rakyat election results

Political Party				Votes	% of vote	Seats	% of seats	+/–
	National Front		BN	3,748,511	56.53	147	76.56	19
		United Malays National Organisation	UMNO	-	-	71	36.98	22
		Malaysian Chinese Association	MCA	-	-	29	15.10	-
		Malaysian Indian Congress	MIC	-	-	7	3.65	-
		Malaysian People's Movement Party	Gerakan	-	-	6	3.13
		People's Progressive Party	PPP	-	-	-	-	-
		Parties in Sarawak		-	-	28	14.58
		Parties in Sabah		-	-	6	3.13
	Alternative Front		BA	2,667,818	40.23	42	21.88	26
		Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party	PAS	994,279	14.99	27	14.06	19
		Democratic Action Party	DAP	830,870	12.53	10	5.21	3
		National Justice Party1	KeADILan	773,679	11.67	5	2.60	1
		Malaysian People's Party	PRM	68,990	1.04	0	0.00	0
	United Sabah Party2		PBS	143,342	2.16	3	1.56	5
	State Reform Party2		STAR	23,354	0.35	0	0
	Malaysian Democratic Party		MDP	8,001	0.12	0	0.0
	Pan Malaysian Islamic Front		BERJASA	409	0.01	0	0
	Malaysian People's Welfare Party		AKIM	274	0.00	0	0.0
	Independents and others			39,385	0.59	0	0	1
Valid votes				6,455,714
Invalid/blank votes				175,380
Total votes (voter turnout: 69.3%)				6,631,094	100.0	193	100.0	+1
Did not vote				2,932,977
Registered voters				9,564,071
Voting age population (aged 21 years and above)				13,411,519
Malaysian population				22,549,627
Source: Nohlen et al. [2] 1This is the first election taken part by KeADILan 2Pending to join Barisan Alternatif, but STAR have managed to negotiate with the component parties of BA over all the seats in Sarawak, while PBS could not fully manage the negotiation in Sabah.

State assembly results

Main article: Malaysian state elections, 1999

The opposition won a total of 113 state assembly seats, 98 of which went to the PAS, 11 to the DAP and 4 for Keadilan. In the states of Kelantan and Terengganu, the PAS won by a huge margin–41-2 against Barisan Nasional out of a total of 43 seats and 28-4 out of a total of 32 seats respectively, hence allowing them to form the state governments in these states. In addition, PAS also captured one-third of the state seats in Kedah, with the remaining two-thirds going to Barisan Nasional (UMNO won 16 seats, MCA 2 seats in Kedah).

The election results were seen as a great gain for PAS, who previously had no state seats in Kedah and capturing only one seat in Terengganu in the 1995 General Elections. Observers attributed this to the negelect by the Federal Administration in the states of Terengganu and Kelantan.

Post elections cabinet appointments

After the elections, Mahathir Mohamad was re-elected as the Prime Minister and formed a cabinet. Among his prominent was to appoint a non-politician and an academic, Dr. Musa Mohamed to spearhead the Education Ministry. The cabinet consists of 30 full ministers from Barisan Nasional.

Portfolio	Minister
Prime Minister of Malaysia	Mahathir Mohamad
Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia	Abdullah Badawi
Minister of Finance and Special Functions	Mahathir Mohamad
Minister of Home Affairs	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Minister of Defence	Najib Razak
Minister of Education	Dr. Musa Mohamad
Minister of Foreign Affairs	Syed Hamid Albar
Minister of International Trade and Industry	Rafidah Aziz
Minister of Health	Chua Jui Meng
Minister of Works	Samy Vellu
Minister of Transport	Ling Liong Sik
Minister of Agriculture	Mohd Effendi Norwawi
Minister of Energy, Communications and Multimedia	Leo Moggie Anak Irok
Minister of Human Resource	Fong Chan Onn
Women, Family and Community Development Minister	Shahrizat Abdul Jalil
Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister	Rais Yatim
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister	Dr. Jamaluddin Jarjis
Entrepreneurial and Cooperative Development Minister	Mohamed Khaled Nordin
Higher Education Minister	Mustapa Mohamed
Natural Resources and Environment Minister	Azmi Khalid
Rural and Regional Development Minister	Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister	Shafie Apdal
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister	Peter Chin Fah Kui
Youth and Sports Minister	Azalina Othman
Health Minister	Ong Ka Ting(acting) Dr Chua Soi Lek (resigned after sex scandal)
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department	Bernard Dompok
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department	Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department	Dr Abdullah Md Zin
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department	Dr Maximus Ongkili
Information minister	Zainuddin Maidin
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department	Mohd Effendi Norwawi
Tourism Minister	Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor
Federal Territories Minister	Zulhasnan Rafique

References

• "Malaysia unlikely to go fundamentalist: Lee Kuan Yew". (Dec. 13, 1999). Agence France Presse.

External links

• South Asia Analysis Group synopsis of the 1999 election results.
• Trends in Malaysia: Election Assessment (PDF) a 62 pages collection of papers from Institute of Southeast Asian Studies after the 1999 election.