The 12th Kedah state election was held on 8 March 2008. Polling took place in 36 constituencies throughout the Malaysian state of

Kedah Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman and historically as Queda, is a state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area of over 9,000 km2, and it consists of the mainland ...

, with each electing a State Assemblyman to the

Kedah State Legislative Assembly The Kedah State Legislative Assembly ( ms, Dewan Undangan Negeri Kedah) is the state legislature of the Malaysian state of Kedah. It is a unicameral institution, consisting of a total of 36 lawmakers representing single-member constituencies thro ...

. The election was conducted by the Malaysian Election Commission. The state election was held concurrently with the

2008 Malaysian general election A general election was held on Saturday, 8 March 2008 for members of the 12th Parliament of Malaysia. Voting took place in all 222 parliamentary constituencies of Malaysia, each electing one Member of Parliament to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant ...

. In a historic result, the incumbent government from

Barisan Nasional The National Front ( ms, Barisan Nasional; abbrev: BN) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1973 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties. It is also the third largest political coalition with 30 ...

(BN) was handed an unprecedented and shocking defeat by the opposition, the first time Kedah's ruling party from BN or is predecessor Alliance Party was voted out of power since the start of the state elections in 1955. The informal coalition of

Democratic Action Party The Democratic Action Party (abbreviation: DAP; ms, Parti Tindakan Demokratik; ; ta, ஜனநாயக செயல் கட்சி) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Malaysia. As one of four component parties of the ...

(DAP), Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and

Parti Keadilan Rakyat The People's Justice Party ( ms, Parti Keadilan Rakyat , often known simply as KEADILAN or PKR) is a Reformism, reformist politics of Malaysia, political party in Malaysia, formed in 2003 by a merger of the National Justice Party and the olde ...

(PKR) won 21 seats out of the 36 seats, gaining a simple majority in the Kedah State Legislative Assembly.

Background

Political parties

Electoral divisions

Issues

Campaign

Social media

Rallies

Results

Aftermath

As the party with the most seats in the winning DAP-PAS-PKR coalition, PAS has the priority in choosing the new Menteri Besar.

Azizan Abdul Razak Azizan bin Abdul Razak (25 October 1944 – 26 September 2013) was a Malaysian politician who served as the 10th Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of the state of Kedah from 2008 to 2013. A member of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), he was ...

, the PAS Kedah Commissioner and MLA for Sungai Limau, was selected by the coalition to be its candidate, and were sworn in on the next day, in front of the Sultan of Kedah. The EXCO members consisting of 7 PAS MLA and 3 PKR MLA, were sworn in on 12 March; the sole MLA from DAP, the other party in the coalition, was excluded. The sole independent candidate who won the

Bukit Selambau Bukit Selambau is a small town in Kuala Muda District, Kedah, Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the Sout ...

seat, V. Arumugam joined PKR days after the election, bringing the PKR MLAs to 5 and total MLA in the DAP-PAS-PKR coalition to 22. But in 2009, Arumugam resigned from his state seat, triggering the 2009 Bukit Selambau by-election; PKR retained the seat by winning the by-election. The DAP-PKR-PAS coalition were later known as

Pakatan Rakyat The People's Alliance ( ms, Pakatan Rakyat; abbrev: PR) was an informal Malaysian political coalition and successor to Barisan Alternatif (BA). The political coalition was formed by the People's Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DA ...

from 1 April 2008.

Notes

References

External links

{{Malaysian state elections

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2008 elections in Malaysia