Voters spoilt for choice
IT used to be that most voters only had to choose between two candidates on their ballot papers. Past general elections were mostly two-way fights for seats between Barisan Nasional and the Opposition, but those days are over.
There was a surge in the number of candidates in the last polls in 2013, a trend that continues to the 14th general election.
A record number of aspiring Yang Berhormat will be slugging it out ahead of polling on May 9.
As a result, multi-cornered fights featuring three, four, five, six and even seven candidates are now the norm, not the exception.
Earlier, the highest number of multi-cornered fights for parliamentary seats was 32. The number rose nearly three-fold to 90 in 2013.
In GE14, there will be 192 multi-cornered fights for the 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat.
This means that for the first time, a majority of the contests for parliamentary seats will have more than two candidates fighting for it.
“When Barisan Nasional failed to retain its two-thirds parliamentary majority in 2008 it strengthened the belief that Barisan was not invincible.
“This led to more candidates and parties taking part in the 2013 general election, a trend that continues,” said Prof Dr Sivamurugan Pandian of Universiti Sains Malaysia.
In the 2008 general election, a total of 1,582 candidates stood in 222 parliamentary and 505 state seats.
In 2013, it rose to 1,901, a 20% rise despite no increase in the number of seats.
For GE14 the figure has gone up further to 2,333, a rise of 23% compared to 2013.
More candidates means more political parties jostling for support.
Eight parties fielded candidates in 2008, and in 2013 the number went up to 12.
In GE14, the number of parties contesting has gone up even further to 29.
With the floodgates opened, voters are spoilt for choice.
Malay voters, for example, now have an unprecedented five major Malay-based or Malay-led parties to choose from.
They can opt to vote for either Umno, PKR, PAS, Amanah or Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Pribumi).
The Registrar of Societies temporarily disbanded Pribumi for 30 days on April 5, but on April 23, the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed for a stay on the RoS decision against Pribumi, pending the disposal of the party’s bid for a judicial review.
Prof Sivamurugan noted how there was an Indian voter swing against Barisan in the 2008 election, followed by a Chinese “tsunami” in 2013.
“Many are now talking of a Malay tsunami this time around.
“If it happens, we could see the battle lines shifting next towards a socio-economic or ‘class’ based tsunami,” said Prof Sivamurugan.
Dr Muhammad Asri Mohd Ali, a research fellow with the National Council of Professors, however, does not expect a Malay tsunami in GE14 despite the increasingly crowded playing field.
In the Malay-belt states of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, the fight remains mostly between Umno and PAS, he said.
Other parties, he said, rarely placed their strong candidates in very rural Malay seats such as in Padang Terap in Kedah or Kuala Krai in Kelantan.
“This is because they are not as confident in these seats compared to the rural and semi-rural seats.”
Candidates need to work harder to win in an increasingly crowded field, especially when the electorate is better educated and more aware of the issues.
Dr Muhammad Asri believes that more and more voters, especially urbanites, are no longer loyal or identify with a political party.
In other words, the number of undecideds or fence-sitters whose allegiances can shift is growing. “When you ask voters who they will vote for, many will tell you it depends on who the party fields.
“It is one indicator that there is no more fixed allegiance or strong identification with political parties,” said Muhammad Asri.
More candidates and parties could also create more uncertainty.
If neither Barisan or Pakatan Harapan wins enough seats to form a comfortable majority, the question is what will happen.
Would it lead to a grand coalition, in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government at either state or federal level?
No matter the outcome or how much more crowded the field gets in future, Malaysia’s parliamentary democracy will always need one very important ingredient due to the country’s diversity, said Prof Sivamurugan.
“In our multi-racial and multi-religious society, an important requirement is and always will be consociationalism, in which political power is shared so that the voice of minority groups is represented in Government,” he said.