KUALA LUMPUR, 22 March 2004 — Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi won a landslide election victory yesterday, routing the Islamist opposition.
Abdullah’s ethnically mixed Barisan Nasional coalition appeared close to winning all of Malaysia’s 13 provincial assemblies.
The Barisan also scored a crucial two-thirds majority in Parliament that allows the government to pass laws uncontested.
“This big win means a lot to us all. It represents the acceptance, the support of the people for the coalition,” Abdullah said in a speech soon after declaring victory.
Abdullah took over from veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad, who retired in October. “It looks like we’ve made a lot of gains in the Green Belt,” a senior government source told Reuters, referring to northern Malay-dominated states.
The Barisan Nasional alliance, led by Abdullah’s United Malays National Organization (UMNO), recaptured Terengganu state from the Islamists and was close to taking Kelantan too.
“It’s touch and go in Kelantan,” said the source, referring to the reported coalition victory in a state held by the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) since 1990.
“It will be a huge, huge bonus for us if it’s true.”
Barisan also retained control of the state of Kedah and its tiny neighbor Perlis — both of which PAS had targeted.
“This election has been unfair. We were not given any chance through the media, through anything,” said PAS leader Abdul Hadi Awang, conceding defeat as chief minister of Terengganu.
But with about a quarter of the parliamentary seats still to be declared, Abdullah looked on course to score one of the biggest election wins in Malaysia’s history.
Final results from the Election Commission showed UMNO claimed Terengganu state with 28 seats to three for PAS, with one being recounted.
Nationally, the National Front coalition won at least 167 seats in the 219-member federal Parliament, surpassing the 146 for a two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution at will, Electoral Commission figures showed. Final results were not due until later today.
Stunned supporters of PAS gathered at the village home of Abdul Hadi Awang. Party officials were at a loss to explain the results. “It was all up to God,” said Zaihan Mohamed Daud, a senior official. “But it doesn’t matter. Our reward is in heaven.”
The wife of Malaysia’s imprisoned former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim faced a recount in her parliamentary seat, a bleak day for the party championing her husband’s cause.
While Wan Azizah Wan Ismail’s political fortunes hung in the balance with the recount due at 0200 GMT on Monday, the Parti Keadilan (National Justice Party) that sprang out of Anwar’s “reformasi” movement looked all but wiped out.
“She won by 27 votes and they asked for a recount,” an aide to the 51-year-old eye doctor told Reuters.
