COMMENT | Lessons from Malacca polls: Election retrospective Part 1

COMMENT | Three months have passed since Umno/BN won handsomely in Malacca polls, securing two-thirds of the seats. It is looking towards achieving the same result in Johor next month, and nationally, as it puts destabilising pressure on the current underperforming government to call for an early general election.

The pandemic, emergence of new entrants, strains and reconfigurations in political alliances and loss of legitimacy and rise of anger towards all political parties have created a different political terrain, one in which there are few sweet contests. Voters are simultaneously choosing options with different degrees of bitterness – yet, in every taste, there is the hope for a bit of sweetness.

In the first of two retrospective pieces on recent campaigns, voting behaviour and elections, this piece looks back at the November Malacca polls.

It draws from an in-depth analysis of the...