Malaysia's Ruling Coalition Wins Election

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia--Malaysia's ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Najib Razak won an election by what appeared would be a comfortable margin Sunday over the opposition led by the charismatic Anwar Ibrahim in a hard-fought election to form the next government following a record turnout.
Shortly after midnight in Kuala Lumpur, the National Front coalition, which has governed the Southeast Asian country since independence from Britain in 1957, had captured 112 of the 222 parliamentary seats as stake, the Election Commission announced. The opposition alliance was at 56, with 54 seats still outstanding.
The tally left Mr. Najib within striking distance of seizing a milestone two-thirds majority of 148, a margin that analysts had thought him unlikely to get anywhere near going into Sunday's vote. Around 80% of country's 13.3 million eligible voters cast their ballots in an election that will also determine who will govern 12 of the country's 13 states for the next five years. The turnout was higher than the 76% of voters who voted in previous election in 2008.
Mr. Anwar kept his parliamentary seat while his coalition retained the third-richest state of Penang, where Mr. Anwar contested. But he generated early confusion--and insinuated that his opponents and the election apparatus were not to be trusted--by tweeting a claim of victory for his People's Alliance coalition less than two hours into the count and before a single official result was released, a move that irked the commission.
"We urge UMNO and the EC to not attempt to hijack the results," the tweet said. The United Malays National Organization, or UMNO, is at the core of the ruling coalition. The tweet came without the benefit of public exit polls.
"He is bluffing and talking nonsense," Mr. Wan Ahmad of the Election Commission, said in a text message to The Wall Street Journal. "How can Anwar claim PR had won?" he said, referring to the Malay name for the opposition alliance. At the time Mr. Anwar took to Twitter, only 300 out of 52,000 ballot boxes had been opened, he said.
It was unclear whether Malaysians would be consider the result to be untainted. "Voter turnout has averaged between 70% and 75% (in the past); 80% is a very good number, but the question remains how many of them are legitimate voters," said Andrew Aeria, who teaches political science at University Malaysia Sarawak.
Some citizens said the ink applied to a voter's index finger to safeguard against repeat voting could be scrubbed off, a charge the Election Commission denied. "Those who tried hard to wash the ink off, it will not be completely washed," Election Commission Deputy Chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar told The Wall Street Journal.
The electorate was choosing to either extend the National Front's rule since independence from Britain in 1957 amid strong economic growth or to give the opposition a chance to make good on its pledges to root out corruption and boost wages and living conditions.
The stakes were high for Mr. Najib, a British-educated son of a former prime minister who seeks a clear mandate to push through his ambitious $444 billion Economic Transformation Program aimed at lifting Malaysia to rank alongside wealthier rival Singapore by 2020, and for Mr. Anwar, who says he is taking his last shot at wresting power.
"I believe the people will make a wise decision," Mr. Najib was quoted as saying by state-run news agency Bernama after he cast his ballot to defend his parliamentary seat in the eastern Pahang state.
A former student firebrand, Mr. Anwar rose through the ranks of UMNO to become deputy prime minister until he fell out with former premier Mahathir Mohamad. He was accused and convicted of sodomy and later acquitted after spending six years in detention. Last year, he was cleared of similar charges that he said were trumped up to destroy his career.
In opposition, Mr. Anwar, now 65, campaigned relentlessly, tapping into a desire for swifter reform among younger Malaysians by pledging more transparency and plans to eliminate the affirmative-action policies that gives preferences to ethnic Malay Muslims in everything from education to government jobs.
Since taking office four year ago, Mr. Najib, 59 years old, rolled out some reforms aimed at outflanking Mr. Anwar's supporters and containing a growing clamor for greater accountability in a more democratic Malaysia. He scrapped a decades-old law enabling security forces to detain critics without trial, and began chipping away at the sprawling affirmative-action program while accelerating state-asset sales to reduce government's hold on business.
Mr. Najib maintained that only the National Front can maintain stability in multiracial, Muslim-majority Malaysia, which has increasingly raised its appeal as a model democracy to the Islamic world as well as the West. Foreign investors hold close to half of Malaysia's government debt, a testament of trust in the steady economic progress that has helped lift millions out of poverty.
Some analysts warned that the financial markets will be hurt by short-term jitters nonetheless.