Does the Chinese vote really matter?
(MMO) – Barisan Nasional (BN) blamed a “Chinese tsunami” during Election 2013 for its poorest showing ever, but how much do Chinese seats really matter in the quest to win federal government?
Here’s a quick look at all the facts and figures based on the 13th general election (GE13) and an analysis of the value of the Chinese vote for the 14th general election and future polls.
With 222 federal seats in Malaysia, all that is needed to form the government is a simple majority of 112 seats.
According to GE13 figures compiled by social media analytics firm Politweet:
Chinese-majority seats (seats where Chinese make up more than half of the electorate) accounted for 30 out of the 222 seats, or just 13.5 per cent of the parliamentary seats that were up for grabs during GE13.
The proportion of ethnic Chinese voters in these seats ranged from 52.27 per cent (Beruas) to as high as 90.94 per cent (Bandar Kuching).
These seats can be found in Penang (7 seats), Perak (5), Kuala Lumpur (5), Selangor (1), Melaka (1), Johor (3), Sarawak (6) and Sabah (2).
These Chinese-majority seats are mostly urban (16), while 12 seats are semi-urban and the remaining two are rural seats, according to Politweet’s definition.
So what was the record like in GE13?
The federal Opposition won all 30 Chinese-majority seats nationwide in GE13, scoring a huge vote-majority even in multi-corner fights. ― Picture by Choo Choy May
From the 30 Chinese-majority seats, 29 were won by DAP and one by ally PKR, data from the website undi.info showed.
A total of 22 seats were won with a whopping majority of votes in five figures — ranging from 14,762 in Gelang Patah to 51,552 in Seputeh — even when DAP was sometimes pitted against two or three candidates in multi-corner fights.
In the eight other seats that were all either rural or semi-urban, the then-Pakatan Rakyat mostly won with four-figure vote majority ranging from 1,088 votes (Sandakan) to 5,400 votes (Kampar), and with the lowest in Sarikei at 505, undi.info‘s data showed.
But at the end of the day, winning Putrajaya is all about making up the 112 seats.
So in GE13, BN lost in all Chinese-majority seats but retained power with its haul of 133 seats, while then-Pakatan Rakyat won 89 seats (of which one-third was Chinese seats).
Out of the 222 seats nationwide in GE13, 119 are Malay-majority seats, 35 are mixed seats, while there are 19 seats each in Sabah and Sarawak where the Bumiputera community is dominant.
