2004 Malaysian general election

← 1999 21 March 2004 2008 →
All 219 seats in theDewan Rakyat 110 seats needed for a majority
Registered	9,755,097 ( 2.19%)
Turnout	72.95% ( 1.76pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Kerk Kim Hock Abdul Hadi Awang Party BN DAP BA Last election 56.52%, 148 seats 12.74%, 10 seats 40.28%, 42 seats Seats won 198 12 8 Seat change 50 2 34 Popular vote 4,437,919 687,350 1,672,350 Percentage 63.82% 9.88% 24.05% Swing 7.30pp 2.86pp 16.23pp
Results by constituency
Prime Minister before election Abdullah Ahmad Badawi BN Prime Minister-designate Abdullah Ahmad Badawi BN

General elections were held inMalaysia on Sunday, 21 March 2004. Voting took place in all 219 parliamentary constituencies, each electing one Member of Parliament to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant house of Parliament. They were the first elections forAbdullah Ahmad Badawi as Prime Minister following his appointment in 2003.State elections also took place in 505 state constituencies in twelve of the thirteen states (exceptSarawak) on the same day, which also marked the first timeSabah held its state election parallel with the other states of Peninsular Malaysia.

The result was alandslide victory for theBarisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which received 64% of the vote (and would have gained a higher vote had all seats been contested) and won 198 seats to the combined opposition parties' 20 seats, with one independent. This was the largest majority that BN had won since1978. The dominant party in BN, theUnited Malays National Organisation (UMNO), won 109 seats, a gain of 37. UMNO's allies also gained seats; theMalaysian Chinese Association (MCA) won 31 seats, a gain of two, and theMalaysian Indian Congress (MIC) won nine seats, a gain of two.

ThePan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) managed to retain only seven of its 27 seats. PAS ran on a platform promising anIslamic state, which turned off manymoderate voters. In addition, the PAS leader,Abdul Hadi Awang, losthis parliamentary seat. Another opposition party, thePeople's Justice Party (PKR), lost four of its five seats. After five recounts, the party's leader,Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (the wife of imprisoned former Deputy Prime MinisterAnwar Ibrahim), retainedher seat with a majority of just 590 votes.

The third opposition party, theDemocratic Action Party (DAP), which was routed in the1999 elections, improved its performance with the re-election of party chairmanLim Kit Siang inIpoh Timor seat and his deputy,Karpal Singh inBukit Gelugor seat although party secretary-generalKerk Kim Hock losthis seat. The DAP won 12 seats and regained the official leadership of the opposition in the national parliament from PAS. Most candidates who campaigned on platforms of Islamic issues lost their seats. This was a significant turnaround compared to the previous elections, where generally the more "Islamic" candidates had a greater chance of winning in theMalay heartland.

On 2 March, the tenthnational parliament and all state assemblies inMalaysia (with the exception ofSarawak) were dissolved by theYang di-Pertuan Agong upon the advice of thePrime Minister. Sarawak's last state election was held in2001, and elections for the state assembly were not due till2006.

The elections were held nine months earlier than required by theconstitution. The constitution allowed for a parliamentary term of up to five years. Elections were required to be called three months after parliament is dissolved. The government had until the end of November 2004 to call elections.

Candidates were nominated on 13 March, with the National Front winning 15 seats uncontested, and another two seats after the opposing candidates withdrew. The right to withdraw was only introduced as a new rule at these elections. Under this rule candidates are allowed a three-day period to withdraw following nomination day. Of the 17 parliamentary seats won uncontested, nine were in the state ofSabah, six inSarawak and two in Johor.

PAS won astate assembly seatSenggarang inJohor for the first time, after the National Front candidate was disqualified because she was seconded by someone who was not a registered voter in the constituency that she wanted to contest. The requirement that the seconder be registered in the same constituency was only introduced in 2004. This seat was influenced by other opposition parties to gain many state seat in2008 contest.

The elections were marred by discrepancies, which were admitted by the electoral authorities. The head of theElection Commission, Ab Rashid Ab Rahman, made the statement "I have been in this line for so long... it should not have happened at all. There must be reasons why this happened." He has served in the election commission for the last five elections, and has stated that he intends to resign if a report on the discrepancies implicates him in the foul-ups.

Among the discrepancies were wrongly printed ballots, registered voters being unable to vote and wide discrepancies in votes in various seats upon re-counting the ballots.

In the seat ofSungai Lembing in state of Pahang, the Keadilan symbol was printed wrongly on the ballot paper for PAS candidate Idris Ahmad. Illiterate voters tend to rely on familiar party symbols for voting purposes as they are unable to read the candidate's names on the ballot. Voting was suspended for 5 hours before resuming. Polling was re-held for the seat on 28 March.^[1]

• Members of the Dewan Rakyat, 11th Malaysian Parliament
• 2004 Malaysian state elections

• Lim, Hong-Hai; Ong, Kiang-Min (2006).The 2004 General Election and the Electoral Process in Malaysia. Berlin: Lit. pp. 147–214.{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)

• The (Malaysian) Star Online
• ChannelNewsAsia
• Bernama
• Election Commission Malaysia (SPR)(in Malay)
• Results from the SPR(in Malay)

• 2004 elections in Asia
• 2004 elections in Malaysia
• General elections in Malaysia
• March 2004 in Malaysia

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use British English from July 2016
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Use dmy dates from July 2016
• CS1 errors: periodical ignored
• Articles with Malay-language sources (ms)