General elections were held inMalaysia between Saturday, 8 July and Saturday, 22 July 1978.[1] Voting took place in all 154 parliamentary constituencies, each electing one Member of Parliament to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant house of Parliament.State elections also took place in 276 state constituencies (exceptKelantan,Sabah andSarawak) on the same day.
It wasHussein Onn's first election after becoming the country's thirdPrime Minister in 1976. HisBarisan Nasional alliance emerged victorious with 130 of the 154 seats. Voter turnout was 75%.
As expected, Barisan Nasional comfortably maintained its majority in theMalaysian Parliament and thus, gave the Prime Minister the power to form a government with a free hand. Despite the victory, BN actually lost further five seats out of 154 seats to the opposition.
ThePan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) withdrew from BN in the midst of the1977 Kelantan Emergency over disagreements with UMNO over the running of the state government ofKelantan, which PAS had controlled since the first post-independence general election in1959. With the support of UMNO, detractors within PAS split with the party and formed thePan-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 and keeping administration by BN for 12 years until1990.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 24 seats.Democratic Action Party won the largest slice of the pie among the opposition parties and hence, its leaderLim 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.
The above registered voter turnout refers to total electorate for the contested constituencies. The total electorate for whole of Malaysia including 9 uncontested constituencies is 5,0659,702.[2]
Total Electors for Johor is 614605 voters. The above table shows the total voters of contested constituencies and there is only one uncontested seat in Johor - Batu Pahat
Total Electors of Kuala Lumpur is 328216. The above table shows total number of voters for contested constituencies. There was one uncontested seat - Setapak (won by UMNO)
Total Electors of Malacca is 188022. The above table shows total number of voters for contested constituencies. There was one uncontested seat - Batu Berendam
Total Electors of Negeri Sembilan is 221815. The above table shows total number of voters for contest constituencies. There was one uncontested seat - Jelebu
Total Electorate of Sabah is 295580. The above table shows the registered voter count of contested constituency and there is one uncontested constituency - Ulu Padas
Total Electors of Sarawak is 440276. The above table shows the registered voter count of contested constituency and there are three uncontested constituencies - Padawan, Baram and Bukit Mas
Total electors is 207267. The above table shows the registered voters for contested constituencies and there is one uncontested constituency - Kuala Nerus
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