1978 Malaysian general election

Malaysian general election, 1978

8 – 22 July 1978
All 154 seats to the Dewan Rakyat 78 seats needed for a majority
Registered	5,059,689
Turnout	3,596,732 (75.3%)
First party Second party Third party   File:Tun Hussein Onn (MY 3rd PM).jpg PAS Leader Hussein Onn Lim Kit Siang Asri Muda Party BN DAP PAS Leader since 14 January 1976 October 1969 1969 Leader's seat Sri Gading Petaling No seat Last election 135 seats, 60.7% 9 seats, 18.3% 13 seats (part of Barisan Nasional) Seats won 131 16 5 Seat change 4 7 8 Popular vote 1,987,907 664,433 537,720 Percentage 57.2% 19.1% 15.5% Swing 3.5% 0.8%
Prime Minister before election Hussein Onn BN Prime Minister-designate Hussein Onn BN

A general election was held between Saturday, 8 July and Saturday, 22 July 1978 for members of the 5th Parliament of Malaysia. Voting took place in all 154 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 276 state constituencies in 10 (out of 13, except Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak) states of Malaysia on the same day.

It was Hussein Onn's first election since he became the country's third Prime Minister. His Barisan Nasional Party emerged victorious with 131 of the 154 seats in Parliament. Voter turnout was 75.3%.

Results

Dewan Rakyat

As expected, Barisan Nasional comfortably maintained its majority in the Malaysian Parliament and thus, gave the Prime Minister the power to form a government with a free hand. Despite the victory, BN actually lost four seats out of 154 seats to the opposition.

The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) withdrew from BN in the midst of the 1977 Kelantan Emergency over disagreements with UMNO over the running of the state government of Kelantan, which PAS had controlled since the first post-independence general election in 1959. With the support of UMNO, detractors within PAS split with the party and formed the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Front (BERJASA). In the election, PAS lost the control of the state for the first time to the UMNO-BERJASA alliance within BN. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has been credited for UMNO's victory in Kelantan.

The opposition garnered 42.8% of total votes. In spite of that, the opposition as one won only 23 seats. Democratic Action Party won the largest slice of the pie among the opposition parties and hence, its leader Lim Kit Siang retained his position as the leader of the opposition that he had obtained four years earlier.

Candidates were returned unopposed in nine constituencies. The registered electors from these constituencies therefore did not cast ballots.

State Assemblies

Main article: Malaysian state elections, 1978