Barisan Nasional Nearly Lost the Popular Vote – Only 51.5% Voted for BN

I know that in the 2004 Elections Barisan Nasional had only garnered 64% of the popular vote and yet had managed to secure 91% of the seats in Parliament. This is of course due to the gerry-mandering of constituency boundaries by the Election Commission to favour the Barisan Nasional.

Reading the blow by blow account on Malaysiakini of the the political tsunami that has swept away the Gomen’s 2/3 majority in Parliament got me wondering just how much of the popular vote the BN had garnered. I was curious about the numbers – so, a little trip to the Election Commission website that obligingly provided all the figures, a little data entry and messing about with the Excel spreadsheet and – Voila! I present to you the numbers for the popular vote:

		Total		%			Barisan	Opposition
		Registered	Total	of	Spoiled	Missing	National	Parties &
States	Seats	Voters	Voters	Voters	Votes	Votes	Parties	Independents
Perlis	3	120,081	97,532.0	81.22%	2,068	257	57,263	37,933
Kedah	15	865,468	697,815	80.63%	15,473	2,873	318,252	361,217
Kelantan	14	751,682	620,632	82.57%	10,765	2,064	271,736	336,067
Terengganu	8	521,597	443,205	84.97%	6,667	1,190	239,922	195,426
Pulau Pinang	13	705,832	554,156	78.51%	7,742	3,593	210,168	332,653
Perak	24	1,196,160	872,592	72.95%	22,675	7,527	391,461	450,929
Pahang	14	603,242	464,659	77.03%	11,470	2,075	268,288	182,826
Selangor	22	1,565,553	1,207,888	77.15%	25,098	4,352	522,091	656,347
Kuala Lumpur	11	687,451	506,672	73.70%	4,513	4,418	188,875	308,866
Putrajaya	1	6,608	5,416	81.96%	38	-	4,038	1,304
Negeri Sembilan	8	462,015	353,021	76.41%	9,740	2,178	186,681	154,422
Melaka	6	371,594	296,977	79.92%	7,564	3,022	164,459	121,932
Johor	26	1,312,121	971,625	74.05%	28,709	2,562	613,813	326,541
WP Labuan	1	20,783	14,149	68.08%	311	247	10,471	3,120
Sabah	25	807,862	519,559	64.31%	15,698	2,748	306,590	194,523
Sarawak	31	912,454	533,145	58.43%	6,480	2,422	336,562	187,681
Total:	222	10,910,503	8,159,043	74.78%	175,011	41,528	4,090,670	3,851,787
Percentage of Votes for Barisan Nasional vs. Opposition Parties (& Independents):							51.50%	48.50%

 Popular Vote for Parliament – Election 2008

Shocking! Barisan Nasional only has 51.5% of the Popular Vote! Nearly half the population of Malaysia (representative of those that voted) has rejected the Barisan Nasional. But the Opposition only has 82 out of 222 seats in Parliament – that 37% of the seats. Mmmm …. 48.5% of Malaysians voted for the Opposition but they only won 37% of the seats? Hardly seems fair.

But someone should wake up Badawi and let him know that if the elections had been FAIR, he would nearly had lost Barisan Nasional the power to govern. Badawi is still adamant on seeking a second term despite the massive failure of his party in losing 5 states and the 2/3 majority in Parliament. Undurlah Pak Lah. YOUR ineptitude and corruption were one of the biggest factors that contributed to the humiliating humbling of you party.

But, going back to the results on the Popular Vote – not matching the representation in Parliament – you can see what BERSIH was screaming about when they say the Election Commission is bias. I’m not talking about phantom voters, duplicate voters, postal voting or any other electoral fraud – I’m just talking pure gerry-mandering. Look at the weightage of seats allocated to each state in comparison to the numbers of registered voters for that state:

					Fair Allocation
		Total		Registered	Based on
	Parliament	Registered	Seat	Voter	Registered
States	Seats	Voters	Weightage	Weightage	Voter Weightage	Difference
Perlis	3	120,081	1.4%	1.1%	3	0
Kedah	15	865,468	6.8%	7.9%	18	-3
Kelantan	14	751,682	6.3%	6.9%	15	-1
Terengganu	8	521,597	3.6%	4.8%	11	-3
Pulau Pinang	13	705,832	5.9%	6.5%	14	-1
Perak	24	1,196,160	10.8%	11.0%	24	0
Pahang	14	603,242	6.3%	5.5%	12	2
Selangor	22	1,565,553	9.9%	14.3%	32	-10
Kuala Lumpur	11	687,451	5.0%	6.3%	14	-3
Putrajaya	1	6,608	0.5%	0.1%	0	1
Negeri Sembilan	8	462,015	3.6%	4.2%	9	-1
Melaka	6	371,594	2.7%	3.4%	8	-2
Johor	26	1,312,121	11.7%	12.0%	27	-1
W.P. Labuan	1	20,783	0.5%	0.2%	0	1
Sabah	25	807,862	11.3%	7.4%	16	9
Sarawak	31	912,454	14.0%	8.4%	19	12
Total:	222	10,910,503	100.0%	100.0%	222

  An Equitable Distribution of Parliament Seats by State

Look especially hard at Sabah and Sarawak – two states that have 21 seats more than they should have and have traditionally voted for Barisan Nasional (with the exception of the PBS uprising one election year). Consider this scenario had there been a fairer distribution of seats:  A redistribution of those 21 seats in Sabah and Sarawak would give 18 seats to Kedah, Kelantan, Penang, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. These are states that the Opposition parties won at least half of the vote – so add 9 seats to the 82 won by the Opposition and the total of 91 seats would give a the Opposition parties a 41% representation in Parliament that is at least closer in to the 48.6% popular vote that they did win.

Let’s just not leave it at state level, the difference in the proportion of voters in differing constituencies is very high. To give you some idea: Putrajaya – 6.608 voters, Kapit – 22,273 voters, Kepala Batas – 43,019 voters, Kepong – 60,775 voters, Batu – 70,544 voters, Gombak – 99,153 voters. Is the Election Commission trying to tell Malaysians that the vote of 1 voter in Putrajaya is worth the same as 9 voters in Gombak? Is the vote of 1 voter from Kapit worth the same as 3 voters in Kepong? A more equitable dsitribution would see about 49,000 voters per constituency with only a 5% margin difference.

So, this is why I take offence at the sanctimonious drivel editorial from the NST stating: “… as the Barision Nasional coalition reeled from a stunning series of defeats, at least one of the thorniest issues in the run-up to the polls must be deemed settled. There can be no more carping oved the elcctoral process in this country being ‘rigged’, flawed or unfair.” (NST, 9 Mar 2008) Some people are just sour grapes in defeat …

The election process in this country is rigged at the most basic of levels – the gerry-mandering of the constituency borders to favour voters more likely to vote Barisan Nasional - and the numbers above prove it.