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1978 Malaysian general election
← outgoing members elected members →
All 154 seats in the Dewan Rakyat; 78 seats needed for a majority
Registered	5,059,689
Turnout	75.30%
Prime Minister before election; Hussein Onn; BN	Prime Minister-designate ; Hussein Onn; BN

General elections were held in Malaysia between Saturday, 8 July and Saturday, 22 July 1978.^[1] Voting took place in all 154 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 276 state constituencies (except Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak) on the same day.

It was Hussein Onn's first and only election since he became the country's third Prime Minister in 1976. His Barisan Nasional Party emerged victorious with 131 of the 154 seats in Parliament. Voter turnout was 75.3%.

Results

As expected, Barisan Nasional comfortably maintained its majority in the Malaysian Parliament and thus, gave the Prime Minister the power to form a government with a free hand. Despite the victory, BN actually lost four seats out of 154 seats to the opposition.

The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) withdrew from BN in the midst of the 1977 Kelantan Emergency over disagreements with UMNO over the running of the state government of Kelantan, which PAS had controlled since the first post-independence general election in 1959. With the support of UMNO, detractors within PAS split with the party and formed the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Front (BERJASA). In the election, PAS lost the control of the state for the first time to the UMNO-BERJASA alliance within BN and keeping administration by BN for 12 years until 1990. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has been credited for UMNO's victory in Kelantan.

The opposition garnered 42.8% of total votes. In spite of that, the opposition as one won only 23 seats. Democratic Action Party won the largest slice of the pie among the opposition parties and hence, its leader Lim Kit Siang retained his position as the leader of the opposition that he had obtained four years earlier.

Candidates were returned unopposed in nine constituencies. The registered electors from these constituencies therefore did not cast ballots.



Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	1,987,907	57.23	69	+7
			Malaysian Chinese Association			17	–2
			Sabah People's United Front			9	New
			Sarawak National Party			9	0
			Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu			8	0
			Sarawak United Peoples' Party			6	–1
			United Sabah National Organisation			5	–8
			Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia			4	–1
			Malaysian Indian Congress			3	–1
			People's Progressive Party			0	–1
		Total				130	–5
	Democratic Action Party			664,433	19.13	16	+7
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			537,720	15.48	5	–8
	Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak			35,009	1.01	0	New
	Malaysian Social Justice Party			23,792	0.68	0	–1
	Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia			22,031	0.63	0	0
	Social Democratic Party			13,788	0.40	0	New
	Sarawak People's Organisation			10,150	0.29	1	New
	Social United Association Party			5,594	0.16	0	New
	Sabah Democratic People's Party			4,491	0.13	0	New
	Parti Umat Sarawak			3,898	0.11	0	New
	Malaysian Workers' Party			1,731	0.05	0	New
	Sabah Chinese Association			1,305	0.04	0	–3
	Sarawak People's National Party			861	0.02	0	New
	Homeland Consciousness Union			350	0.01	0	0
	Independents			160,370	4.62	2	+1
Total				3,473,430	100.00	154	0

Valid votes				3,473,430	96.57
Invalid/blank votes				123,302	3.43
Total votes				3,596,732	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				4,776,361	75.30
Source: Nohlen et al. CLEA, Thambipillai

By state

Johore


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	330,233	77.31	11	0
			Malaysian Chinese Association			4	-1
		Total				15	-1
	Democratic Action Party			64,385	15.07	1	+1
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			32,512	7.61	0	0
Total				427,130	100.00	16	0

Valid votes				427,130	95.90
Invalid/blank votes				18,283	4.10
Total votes				445,413	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				572,447	77.81

Kedah


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	197,865	57.10	9	+1
			Malaysian Chinese Association			2	0
		Total				11	+1
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			137,400	39.65	2	-1
	Democratic Action Party			2,828	0.82	0	0
	Independents			8,410	2.43	0	0
Total				346,503	100.00	13	0

Valid votes				346,503	97.17
Invalid/blank votes				10,099	2.83
Total votes				356,602	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				461,290	77.31

Kelantan


Party or alliance			Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional	United Malays National Organisation	143,161	56.41	10	+5
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party		110,620	43.59	2	-5
Total			253,781	100.00	12	0

Valid votes			253,781	98.99
Invalid/blank votes			2,600	1.01
Total votes			256,381	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			340,141	75.37

Kuala Lumpur


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Democratic Action Party			101,306	54.98	3	+1
	Barisan Nasional		Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia	27,908	15.15	1	+1
			Malaysian Indian Congress	18,239	9.90	0	–1
			United Malays National Organisation			1	0
		Total		46,147	25.05	2	0
	Malaysian Social Justice Party			17,988	9.76	0	–1
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			12,006	6.52	0	0
	Malaysian Workers' Party			1,731	0.94	0	New
	Independents			5,072	2.75	0	0
Total				184,250	100.00	5	0

Valid votes				184,250	98.97
Invalid/blank votes				1,910	1.03
Total votes				186,160	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				261,783	71.11

Malacca


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	59,188	55.68	2	0
			Malaysian Chinese Association			1	0
		Total				3	0
	Democratic Action Party			34,576	32.53	1	0
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			12,536	11.79	0	0
Total				106,300	100.00	4	0

Valid votes				106,300	96.00
Invalid/blank votes				4,428	4.00
Total votes				110,728	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				141,841	78.06

Negri Sembilan


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	81,671	57.61	3	0
			Malaysian Chinese Association			1	0
			Malaysian Indian Congress			1	0
		Total				5	0
	Democratic Action Party			41,736	29.44	1	0
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			11,217	7.91	0	0
	Independents			7,151	5.04	0	0
Total				141,775	100.00	6	0

Valid votes				141,775	95.36
Invalid/blank votes				6,906	4.64
Total votes				148,681	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				190,379	78.10

Pahang


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	123,593	66.83	6	-1
			Malaysian Chinese Association			2	+1
		Total				8	0
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			34,156	18.47	0	0
	Democratic Action Party			16,354	8.84	0	0
	Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia			6,441	3.48	0	0
	Independents			4,384	2.37	0	0
Total				184,928	100.00	8	0

Valid votes				184,928	95.21
Invalid/blank votes				9,297	4.79
Total votes				194,225	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				258,024	75.27

Penang


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	138,173	47.12	2	-1
			Malaysian Chinese Association			1	-2
			Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia			1	-2
		Total				4	-5
	Democratic Action Party			79,918	27.26	4	+4
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			31,667	10.80	1	+1
	Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia			10,044	3.43	0	0
	Social Democratic Party			13,788	4.70	0	0
	Homeland Consciousness Union			350	0.12	0	0
	Independents			19,280	6.58	0	0
Total				293,220	100.00	9	0

Valid votes				293,220	96.60
Invalid/blank votes				10,321	3.40
Total votes				303,541	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				383,134	79.23

Perak


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	293,563	53.50	10	-1
			Malaysian Chinese Association			3	+1
			Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia			2	0
			Malaysian Indian Congress			1	0
			Barisan Nasional			1	0
			People's Progressive Party			0	-1
		Total				17	-1
	Democratic Action Party			200,547	36.55	4	0
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			52,655	9.60	0	-1
	Malaysian Social Justice Party			342	0.06	0	0
	Independents			1,564	0.29	0	0
Total				548,671	100.00	21	0

Valid votes				548,671	96.29
Invalid/blank votes				21,127	3.71
Total votes				569,798	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				736,963	77.32

Perlis


Party or alliance			Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional	United Malays National Organisation	30,762	60.75	2	0
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party		16,973	33.52	0	0
	Independents		2,906	5.74	0	0
Total			50,641	100.00	2	0

Valid votes			50,641	95.78
Invalid/blank votes			2,232	4.22
Total votes			52,873	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			68,572	77.11

Sabah


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		Sabah People's United Front	94,225	51.83	8	New
			United Sabah National Organisation			5	–8
		Total				14	-8
	Democratic Action Party			11,733	6.45	1	+1
	Social United Association Party			5,594	3.08	0	New
	Sabah Democratic People's Party			4,491	2.47	0	New
	Sabah Chinese Association			1,305	0.72	0	–3
	Malaysian Social Justice Party			921	0.51	0	0
	Independents			63,515	34.94	2	+2
Total				181,784	100.00	16	0

Valid votes				181,784	96.97
Invalid/blank votes				5,682	3.03
Total votes				187,466	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				282,369	66.39

Sarawak


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu	52,222	20.38	8	0
			Sarawak National Party	45,218	17.64	9	0
			Sarawak United Peoples' Party	64,099	25.01	6	-1
		Total		161,539	63.03	23	-1
	Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak			35,009	13.66	0	New
	Sarawak People's Organisation			10,150	3.96	1	New
	Parti Umat Sarawak			3,898	1.52	0	New
	Sarawak People's National Party			861	0.34	0	New
	Independents			44,831	17.49	0	0
Total				256,288	100.00	24	0

Valid votes				256,288	96.49
Invalid/blank votes				9,324	3.51
Total votes				265,612	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				385,345	68.93

Selangor


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	212,065	57.56	6	+1
			Malaysian Chinese Association			3	-1
			Malaysian Indian Congress			1	0
		Total				10	0
	Democratic Action Party			111,050	30.14	1	0
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			36,615	9.94	0	0
	Malaysian Social Justice Party			4,541	1.23	0	0
	Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia			902	0.24	0	0
	Independents			3,257	0.88	0	0
Total				368,430	100.00	11	0

Valid votes				368,430	96.18
Invalid/blank votes				14,623	3.82
Total votes				383,053	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				515,497	74.31

Trengganu


Party or alliance			Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional	United Malays National Organisation	75,722	58.37	7	+3
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party		49,363	38.05	0	-3
	Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia		4,644	3.58	0	0
Total			129,729	100.00	7	0

Valid votes			129,729	95.32
Invalid/blank votes			6,367	4.68
Total votes			136,096	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			178,576	76.21

Notes

^ Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p152 ISBN 0-19-924959-8

References

^ As a member of Barisan Nasional in 1974 elections.
^ Excluding seats for PAS, who was a member of Barisan Nasional in 1974 elections but were ousted from BN before the 1978 elections.

[3] Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p152 ISBN 0-19-924959-8

[1] As a member of Barisan Nasional in 1974 elections.

[2] Excluding seats for PAS, who was a member of Barisan Nasional in 1974 elections but were ousted from BN before the 1978 elections.

[b]

[a]

[1]

1978 Malaysian general election