Elections in Malaysia

Elections in Malaysia include elections to public office of the political entities that since 1963 have composed the federation of Malaysia. At present, elections in Malaysia exist at two levels: federal level and state level. Federal level elections are those for membership in the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of Parliament, while state level elections are for membership in the various State Legislative Assemblies. The heads of executive branch at both the federal and state levels, the Prime Minister and Menteri Besar/Chief Ministers respectively, are usually indirectly elected, filled by a member of the majority party/coalition in the respective legislatures.

While any state may dissolve its assembly independently of the Federal Parliament, the traditional practice is for most state assemblies to be dissolved at the same time as Parliament, with the exception of Sabah and Sarawak, although these two states had held elections simultaneously with the rest of the country, as it is the case for Sabah in elections from 2004 to 2018, and Sarawak in the 1969 and 1974 elections. The practice of holding simultaneous elections was disrupted following the 2020–2022 Malaysian political crisis, with only three states holding state elections at the same time as the 2022 parliamentary general election.


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