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Malaysia election 2022
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Malaysia election 2022: Pakatan Harapan counting on strong turnout for November 19 victory, DAP chief Anthony Loke says

  • The Chinese community accounts for a fifth of Malaysia’s 32 million people and has played an outsize role in the opposition increasing its parliamentary presence since 2008
  • Chinese voter turnout exceeded 90 per cent in the watershed 2018 polls, with support mainly going to Pakatan Harapan

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DAP leader Anthony Loke acknowledged that the 2020 coup dealt a heavy blow to voter confidence, especially among Pakatan Harapan supporters, but did not diminish the significance of the 2018 election. Photo: SCMP
Joseph Sipalan
The Democratic Action Party (DAP), a key member of Malaysia’s Pakatan Harapan coalition, said the bloc’s hope of winning next week’s polls hinges on whether it can secure strong voter turnout amid disillusionment over an internal coup that saw it ousted from power in 2020.
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Malaysians made history in the last national polls in 2018, when they booted out the undefeated Barisan Nasional alliance triggering the nation’s first-ever change of government since achieving independence from the British in 1957.

But the euphoria was short-lived, as a clutch of Pakatan Harapan leaders in 2020 orchestrated a coup, in concert with those from Barisan Nasional linchpin party Umno and Islamist party PAS. The Pakatan Harapan government collapsed, and Umno found its way back in power as part of a new Malay nationalist administration.
Pakatan Harapan’s supporters wave the party’s flags during a campaign rally ahead of Malaysia’s general election, in Tambun, Perak on November 5. Photo: Reuters
Pakatan Harapan’s supporters wave the party’s flags during a campaign rally ahead of Malaysia’s general election, in Tambun, Perak on November 5. Photo: Reuters

“We are seeing some momentum coming back. It looks like we are on the right track, but we are fighting for every single vote,” said Anthony Loke, secretary general of DAP, a constituent of the Pakatan Harapan alliance.

Central to Pakatan Harapan’s campaign would be how well they can convince ethnic Chinese voters to make the effort to come out on November 19 and cast their ballots.

Malaysia’s Chinese community accounts for a little over a fifth of the country’s 32 million population, but has been pivotal in helping the opposition increase its share of the 222-seat parliament since 2008, when then-ruling Barisan Nasional was denied a two-thirds majority for the first time in decades.

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Chinese voter turnout exceeded 90 per cent in the watershed 2018 polls and mostly went to Pakatan Harapan, according to internal estimates by several political parties, which led to the country’s first-ever change of government.

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