COMMENT | When by-elections matter and when they don't

COMMENT | Mahkota is the 12th by-election since GE15. If we have just one more by-election after this, the current Parliament would have more by-elections than the entirety of the previous Parliament (2018-2022), which had a total of 12 by-elections.

According to the Election Commission’s estimate, the Mahkota by-election costs RM 2.4 million. Simplistically, if we were to multiply that cost by 15 (nine state constituency by-elections and three federal constituency by-elections, which should cost at least triple), the country has spent RM36 million on by-elections in 22 months from November 2022 to September 2024, or an average of RM1.64 million a month.

Are by-elections important, or are they a waste of money?