A general election was held on Saturday, 8 March 2008 for members of the 12th

Parliament of Malaysia The Parliament of Malaysia ( ms, Parlimen Malaysia) is the national legislature of Malaysia, based on the Westminster system. The bicameral parliament consists of the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives, Literal translation, lit. "People's A ...

. Voting took place in all 222 parliamentary constituencies of Malaysia, each electing one Member of Parliament to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant house of Parliament. State elections also took place in 505 state constituencies in 12 out of 13 states (excluding

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

) on the same day. The 11th Parliament was dissolved on 13 February 2008, and the following day, the Election Commission announced nominations would be held on 24 February, with general

polling Poll, polled, or polling may refer to: Figurative head counts * Poll, a formal election ** Election verification exit poll, a survey taken to verify election counts ** Polling, voting to make decisions or determine opinions ** Polling places o ...

set for 8 March. State assemblies of all states except

(due to election in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

) also dissolved and their elections took place at the same time. Political parties were reported to have begun preparations for the polls as early as January 2008. As in 2004, the incumbent National Front coalition, the ruling political alliance since independence, as well as

opposition parties Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''th ...

represented primarily by

Democratic Action Party The Democratic Action Party (abbreviation: DAP; ms, Parti Tindakan Demokratik; ; ta, ஜனநாயக செயல் கட்சி) is a Centre-left politics, centre-left social democracy, social democratic political party in Malaysia. ...

(DAP), the

Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party The Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS; ms, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia; ms, ڤرتي إسلام سمليسيا, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset) is an Islamist political party in Malaysia. As the party focused on Islamic fundamentalism, PAS's ...

(PAS), and

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

(PKR) contested the election. As with all preceding general elections following independence, the parliamentary election was won by BN, but this election also yielded the worst results in the coalition's history until election ten years later. Opposition parties won 82 seats in the 222-seat

Dewan Rakyat The Dewan Rakyat (English: 'House of Representatives'; ) is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament, the federal legislature of Malaysia. The chamber and its powers are established by Article 44 of the Constitution of Malaysia. The Dewan Ra ...

and 47.79% of the vote, while BN only managing to secure the remaining 140 seats and 51.39% of the vote. It marked the first time since the 1969 election that the coalition did not win a two-thirds supermajority in the Malaysian Parliament required to pass amendments to the

Malaysian Constitution The Federal Constitution of Malaysia ( ms, Perlembagaan Persekutuan Malaysia) which was promulgated on 16 September 1963, is the supreme law of Malaysia and contains a total of 183 articles. It is a written legal document which was preceded ...

. In addition, five of the twelve contested state legislatures were won by the opposition, compared with only one in the last election but

Perak Perak () is a state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, and Selangor to the south. Thailand's ...

was retaken by Barisan Nasional after 11- month administration by

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 ...

coalition. This marked the end of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's tenure as Prime Minister before his handover to Najib Razak several months later. As of the 2022 general election, this is the last time the National Front won the overall popular vote.

Results

Dewan Rakyat

, - ! rowspan=2 colspan=4 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Party ! colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Vote ! colspan=3 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Seats , - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Won ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , +/– , - , style="background-color: ;" , , colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" , National Front , , BN , , 4,082,411 , , 51.39 , , 140 , , 63.06 , , 58 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , rowspan=14, , style="background-color: #E62020;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

United Malays National Organisation The United Malays National Organisation (Malay: ; Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party within Malaysia (since its in ...

, , UMNO , , 2,381,725 , , 29.98 , , 79 , , 35.59 , , 30 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: #0000FF;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Malaysian Chinese Association The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA; zh, 马来西亚华人公会; ; ta, மலேசிய சீனர் சங்கம், initially known as the Malayan Chinese Association) is a uni-racial political party in Malaysia that seeks to ...

, , MCA , , 840,489 , , 10.58 , , 15 , , 6.76 , , 16 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: #FF0000;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Malaysian People's Movement Party The Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia ( en, Malaysian People's Movement Party, commonly abbreviated as GERAKAN or less commonly as PGRM) is a liberal political party in Malaysia. Formed in 1968, Gerakan gained prominence in the 1969 general electio ...

, , Gerakan , , 184,548 , , 2.32 , , 2 , , 0.90 , , 8 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: #29AB87;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Malaysian Indian Congress The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC; ta, மலேசிய இந்திய காங்கிரஸ், Malēciya Intiya Kāṅkiras; formerly known as Malayan Indian Congress) is a Malaysian political party. It is one of the founding membe ...

, , MIC , , 179,422 , , 2.26 , , 3 , , 1.35 , , 6 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: red;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

United Traditional Bumiputera Party Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB; en, United Bumiputera Heritage Party) is a right-wing political party in Malaysia. It is currently the largest political party in Sarawak. Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu was formed from the combination ...

, , PBB , , 131,243 , , 1.65 , , 14 , , 6.31 , , 3 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: yellow;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Sarawak United People's Party The Sarawak United Peoples' Party, or SUPP (; ms, Parti Rakyat Bersatu Sarawak; Iban: ''Gerempong Sa'ati Rayat Sarawak'') is a multiracial centre-right local political party of Malaysia based in Sarawak. The SUPP president is Dr. Sim Kui Hi ...

, , SUPP , , 119,264 , , 1.50 , , 6 , , 2.70 , , , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: #00008B;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation The United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation ( ms, Pertubuhan Kinabalu Progresif Bersatu; abbrev: UPKO) is a multiracial political party based in Sabah, Malaysia. The party was rebranded from its previous party's name, United Pasokmomogun Ka ...

, , UPKO , , 58,856 , , 0.74 , , 4 , , 1.80 , , , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: #FFFF00;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party The Progressive Democratic Party (Malay: Parti Demokratik Progresif, Abbreviation: PDP), formerly known as Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party is a Sarawak based political party in Malaysia founded in 2002. The party was founded in the wake o ...

, , SPDP , , 52,645 , , 0.66 , , 4 , , 1.80 , , , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: #ADD8E6;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

United Sabah Party The United Sabah Party ( ms, Parti Bersatu Sabah, abbreviated PBS) is a political party of Sabah. The PBS was founded by Joseph Pairin Kitingan in 1985 and it is Sabah's oldest local party. In August 2020, PBS confirmed that they would be usin ...

, , PBS , , 44,885 , , 0.56 , , 3 , , 1.35 , , 1 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: green;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Sarawak People's Party The ''Parti Rakyat Sarawak'' or PRS (English: Sarawak Peoples' Party) is a multiracialism & nationalism political party in Sarawak, and Malaysia at all. The party was founded in the wake of the de-registration of the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawa ...

, , PRS , , 33,410 , , 0.42 , , 6 , , 2.70 , , New , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: ;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Sabah Progressive Party The Sabah Progressive Party ( ms, Parti Maju Sabah, abbreviated SAPP) is a multiracial political party based in Sabah, Malaysia. It was registered on 21 January 1994 by dissidents led by former Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee from Uni ...

, , SAPP , , 30,827 , , 0.39 , , 2 , , 0.90 , , 2 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: #DAA520;" , , style="text-align:left;" , People's Progressive Party , , PPP , , 16,800 , , 0.21 , , 0 , , 0.00 , , 1 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: #FF7F00;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Liberal Democratic Party , , LDP , , 8,297 , , 0.10 , , 1 , , 0.45 , , 1 , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , style="background-color: #FEDF00;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

United Sabah People's Party The United Sabah People's Party ( ms, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah; abbreviated: PBRS) is a minority political party based in Sabah, Malaysia. Presently PBRS is being led by its founding and first President; Joseph Kurup. PBRS is officially a c ...

, , PBRS , , 0 , , 0.00 , , 1 , , 0.45 , , , -style="background:#EFEFEF;" , , colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" , Parties in the informal coalition,

People's Pact 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 (DAP ...

, , PR , , 3,767,781 , , 47.43 , , 82 , , 36.94 , , 62 , - , style="background-color: ;" , , colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" ,

, , PKR , , 1,509,080 , , 19.00 , , 31 , , 13.96 , , 30 , - , style="background-color: ;" , , colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" ,

Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party The Malaysian Islamic Party (P