Parliament
Another
Malaysia,
called
whenever
issue
aisgeneral
dissolved.
waIn
the election
Another
malapportionment
which
was
issue
was
and
on
theis
s on gerrymandering
and
was
the
malapportionment
which
The Election occurs every five years in accordance with Article 55(3) of the
Constitution, however Parliament is typically dissolved earlier than that. If the Prime Minister
wants to call an early election, he can do so by informing the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. If the
King agrees, the Prime Minister may then proceed to inform the entire nation of his decision.
After the dissolution of Parliament, the Election Commission must start to work, and one of
its first tasks is to publish a notice including two crucial dates: the Nomination Day and the
Election Day. Until the next election, the government will be headed by the coalition that
secures the majority of seats in the Parliament. The Federal Constitution contains numerous
laws that are related to elections. For instance, the Federal Constitution's Part VIII, Article 120,
and the Thirteenth Schedule. The main goal of the many election-related provisions is to
protect the integrity of the voting process. However, it's crucial to consider if they're being
applied in a just and efficient way. The first-past-the-post (FPTP) election system, also known
as the simple plurality system (SPS), was created during Malaysia's 1957 independence in
order to guarantee a stable administration. The simplest sort of plurality technique is the FPTP
system, which uses single-member districts and candidate-centred voting. The candidate with
the most votes truly wins if any other candidate only earns one vote, the winner could still be
chosen with two votes. The main benefit of FPTP is its capacity to offer a powerful and stable
government. However, it does not guarantee minorities' democratic and fair representation.
There have been numerous attempts to change the FPTP electoral system as a result of various
underlying problems, particularly following the 14th General Election. For instance, there was
a claim that the reformation of FPTP wasn't required and was merely an ideal. Two coalitions
have been favoured by the opposition parties and civil society organisations. Based on the
two-party system in the UK, the concept of a two-coalition rivalry called for Barisan Nasional
and a second multi-ethnic coalition to compete for the centre and form governments
alternately. Another problem was with gerrymandering and malapportionment, which were
brought about by constitutional errors in Article 46 and Section 2(d) of the Thirteenth
Schedule. Since 1974, interstate malapportionment has been permitted under Article 46 of
the Constitution, which requires the parliament to unilaterally assign members among states
and federal territories. On the other hand, Section 2(d) of the Thirteenth Schedule fails to stop
gerrymandering because to its weak demands to avoid annoyance and maintain local
relations. Last but not least, the 14th General Election (GE14), which took place in 2018, is the
most well-known general election in Malaysia. Based on the nation's financial and electoral
records, the GE14 results are crucial. This is primarily because the ruling coalition did not
foresee an overwhelming total defeat. It's interesting to note that the main opposition
coalition did not anticipate winning the election outright. By terminating the same political
party's uninterrupted 61-year control, the election outcome has brought about a political
transition. Due to the fact that UMNO has always had the most seats in Parliament, it has also
ended a political tradition After the GE14, gender politics, particularly in the context of the
female community, received attention. In contrast to past general elections, the GE14 had an
unusually high number of female candidates, and data shows that women have a greater
victory percentage, effectively producing a reversal gender disparity in percentage gains. Prior
to this, there was little political space for women because of the strong patriarchy inside the
political system, which was dominated by male candidates.
In conclusion, given what we know about the Malaysian general election, switching
from the FPTP system to the proportional representation one may be the most practical
method to guarantee political stability. In addition, the historic GE14 marked the end of a
political tradition and the start of gender politics because it was the first time that such a large
number of women candidates ran for office.