ABSTRACT
The political dominance of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in Malaysia came to an abrupt end in the 2018 general elections. The result was especially unanticipated because new electoral boundaries implemented just before the election appeared to exacerbate already extensive pro-incumbent bias, thereby further inhibiting a turnover of power through the ballot box. This chapter examines in detail the effects of electoral boundary manipulations on Malaysian politics. It shows that the boundaries used in 2018 continued to exhibit bias in favour of UMNO and its coalition partners. In fact, levels of both inter- and intra-state malapportionment increased relative to the 2013 election. UMNO’s fall from power, then, came despite extensive advantages in the translation of votes into seats. The pattern of malapportionment, together with extensive gerrymandering that increased the number of Malay-dominant districts, continues to affect politics following the transition, as it has far-reaching implications for the relative distribution of power between coalition members and geographic regions.
