General elections were held in
Malaysia on Saturday, 10 May 1969, although voting was postponed until between 6 June and 4 July 1970 in
Sabah and
Sarawak.[1] This election marked the first parliamentary election held in Sabah and Sarawak after the formation of Malaysia in 1963.
The elections also saw Alliance lose its majority in
Perak,
Selangor and
Penang in addition to
Kelantan. The result of the election and subsequent reactions would cause widespread race riots also known as the
13 May Incident. As a consequence of this incident, the federal government decided to suspend parliament and government administration was monitored by
MAGERAN until 1971.[3] It also marked the end of
Tunku Abdul Rahman's administration as Prime Minister before he was succeeded by
Tun Abdul Razak several months later. Razak would then seek the main purpose to establish the
Federal Territory of
Kuala Lumpur.[4]
State elections also took place in 330 state constituencies in 12 (out of 13, except
Sabah) states of Malaysia on the same day.
Results
Dewan Rakyat
Candidates were returned unopposed in 19 constituencies. Voting in one constituency was postponed.
West Malaysia went to the polls on 10 May, while Sabah was scheduled to vote on 25 May and Sarawak on 7 June. The Alliance won eight seats on nomination day being unopposed in some constituencies. Tun Mustapha Datu Harun's United Sabah National Organisation (USNO) won 10 out of 16 seats unopposed on nomination day.
The opposition parties' gain at state level was more shocking to the Alliance Party which not only continued to lose to PAS in Kelantan, but also to political infant Gerakan in Penang. No party commanded an absolute majority in two other states. The Alliance held only 14 out of 24 seats in Selangor and 19 out of 40 in Perak.[2]
The attrition of Malay support was much higher than that of the non-Malays. Malay opposition parties' vote shares in the peninsula increased drastically from about 15% in 1964 to 25% in 1969 while the support for non-Malay opposition parties remained roughly the same at 26% in both elections. Thanks to the electoral system, however, PAS seats increased from nine to 12 seats only while non-Malay opposition party, DAP, from 1 to 13.
Gerakan and DAP held a victory rally in
Kuala Lumpur on 12 May. The rally soon turned rowdy, as party members and Malay bystanders started to shout racial
epithets at each other.[5] UMNO retaliated with its own rally on 13 May, which soon broke out into full-scale rioting. This event subsequently became known as the
13 May Incident.[5]
References
^Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p152
ISBN0-19-924959-8