KUALA LUMPUR: So Malaysia will hold its general election in less than two weeks' time. A total of 222 parliamentary seats are up for grabs, and under Malaysia's political system of parliamentary — as opposed to presidential — democracy, at least 112 seats or a parliamentary majority of support is needed for a prime minister to be appointed and a new government formed. A total of nearly a thousand candidates are vying for these seats, with some constituencies seeing nine- or even 10-cornered fights. A plurality principle is used to determine the winners, such that in each constituency the candidate who garners the most votes wins, regardless of whether the votes he or she obtained surpass half of the total numbers of votes cast, and there is thus no second round of voting for the top vote-getters.

The political landscape of Malaysia is nowadays a very fragmented one. Traditionally, there was a well-defined ruling coalition and a corresponding opposition coalition, with Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH), the two largest coalition of parties, having been both. But presently there is at least a third significant coalition, the Perikatan Nasional (PN), which was part of the just dissolved government together with BN, but is now engaged in open electoral warfare with both BN and PH. Ironically, this immediate past government was at least partially propped up in parliament by the opposition PH, in exchange for some much needed political reform measures, such as equal allocation of public development funds for all constituencies and not just those belonging to the ruling coalition, as well as laws discouraging the switching of party allegiance by elected members of parliament.

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