A far cry from the sterling sweep Barisan National obtained in the 2004 elections, the 2008 or 12th General Election has seen a unmistakably clear sign from the rakyat – resulting in the fall of the Barisan National coalition from it’s once lofty heights. The time for change is now, the wind of change is blowing and the Tsunami has swept the polls.
This blogger has unfortunately not kept a detailed timeline of the rise of the Opposition as the results began to stream in earlier this night. However as a round up on the current status of the election results, this post is a general summary of the events that has just occurred – summarised from the live-blogging site of Malaysiakini.
* This summary will cover the relevant hot seats, general and pertinent info and will focus on the Opposition & also Barisan National parties.
7.30 pm – 9.30 pm
As early as 6.45pm various online source, chiefly led by online news portal Malaysiakini, began rolling out live updates of the results on their site. What began with a every increasing deluge of both confirmed & unconfirmed results tally soon turn to a glaringly obvious statement of sweeping wins made by Oppositions parties of DAP, PKR and soon to follow PAS in hotly contested seats in the states of Penang.
Major victories for Opposition’s DAP were announced at 8.30pm with at at least 2 confirmed state level and 14 parliamentary seats were won. Also on the list were 9 other parliamentary seats seen to be winners for the party. Major number of seats in Penang and some other in Selangor were touted as victories for DAP causing DAP’s Lim Kit Siang to declare it as the Political Tsunami.
(Also on the winning list was Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentary seat, this blogger’s area of residence, for DAP’s Tony Pua. Noticeable mention goes out to Teresa Kok of Seputeh and Kinrara – both were undeniable victories).
Early unconfirmed results has also indicated to major losses for chief BN component parties leaders Samy Vellu (MIC), Koh Tsu Koon (Gerakan) & M Kayveas (PPP). Soon the results were announced and true to prediction long time MIC veteran Samy Vellu was soundly beaten by his opponent. The voters in the Sungai Siput district has finally had enough and the results speak volumes of the dissatisfaction of the humble joe public. Similarly for Koh Tsu Koon it was also the storey of defeat in his Batu Kawan seat. Unsurprisingly M Keyveas also saw the loss of his and his party’s only seat to DAP’s Nga Hon Ming in the Taiping seat.
10.30 pm
Around 10.30pm onward the results kept coming in and even more good news there was. Former Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin (of Al Jazeera fame) lost to PKR candidate Johari Abdullah. This was soon followed by the even more surprising news that PKR Nurul Izzah Anwar had succeeded in defeating BN incumbent Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
The clincher for the Opposition came with the televised news conference of Koh Tsu Koon promising a smooth transition of power of the Penang state to the joint DAP-PKR-PAS front who had all but swept the state in stunning victories. This was soon followed by the confirmation that the Opposition PKR & PAS had won the majority of seats, 22 out off 36 seats, in the Kedah state government. This was the second state to fall into oppositions hands. Kelantan was not far behind in joking the ranks of states won over by the Opposition with unconfirmed results placing them at cleans sweeps of the majority of state and parliament seats.
Before 12 pm
Around this time also it was announced UMNO’s President, Abdullah Badawi, won his Kepala Batas seat with a reduced majority. Also to announce their victories were UMNO’s Deputy President, Najib Abdul Razak, and UMNO Youth Chief Hishammuddin for their respective seats of Pekan and Sembrong.
Before the midnight mark statements from various candidates and party leader were being made. Most noticeably of this are 2 cases of high contrast. Whilst Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi was speaking on the loss of the 3 states (Penang, Kedah & Kelantan) to the hands of the Opposition, he accepted it as part and parcel of democracy and urged everyone to
remain calm. Minutes later word from the DAP camp strong suggested that Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng was the candidate of choice for the position of Chief Minister.
12 pm – 2 am
A slight issue of uncounted ballot boxes arised at Lembah Pantai but was later cleared up and label as technical issues with the results still remaining the same. Meanwhile unofficial results began stating that Selangor had also followed suit and fallen to Opposition hands. Quoting a win of 35 of out 56 states seats, PKR Secretary-General Kahalid Ibrahim was touted to be named as Chief Minister. Meanwhile on the BN front, Barisan stronghold Johor along with Melacca, Perlis & Negeri Sembilan were declared as BN victories.
Next Kelantan was declared to be a firm victory for Opposition party PAS. DAP stalwart Karpal Singh also declared victory and demolished his BN opponent. The understatement of the day came next from MCA President Ong Ka Ting – who express shock at the loss of ‘scores of seats‘ and also added that a detailed study will be conducted on the defeat. Officially at 1am Lim Guan Eng was named Chief Minister of Penang and also stated was that DAP would form the state government of Penang along with PKR. Even more enticing news was stated that Perak had also fallen to Oppositions hands with a simple majority as well in lieu of the 30 out of 59 seats already won by the opposition.
2 am – 3 am
Simple majority was declared for BN who is expected to form the next federal government. Number of seats claimed by Opposition had not be finalized at this point by the EC. MIC also sees losses for its major leaders
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(Hulu Selangor) G Palanivel to PKR’s Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad,
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(Kota Raja) Vigneswaran to PAS’s Siti Mariah,
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(Teluk Kemang) Sothinathan to PKR’s Kamarul Baharain Abbas
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and earlier casualty (Kapar) Komala to PKR’s S Manikavasagam
At 2.25 UMNO leaders were already in an emergency meeting with moods made all the more grimmer with the shocking
results of the election thus far. Lastly at 2.40am unofficial news put it that the Barisan National coalition has been denied 2/3 majority in parliament by the Opposition parties.
