Voting Patterns: Evidence from the 2004 Malaysian General Elections

This paper examines voters’ behavior and voting patterns as well as the factors influencing them using survey data of the electorate carried out in selected parliamentary and state constituencies during the 2004 Malaysian general elections. The findings from the study indicate that in the absence of major national issues, local issues pertaining to growing social problems such as urban poverty, inadequate housing, environmental degradation, petty crimes among youth, and drug abuse became more dominant. The issue of the establishment of an Islamic state also seemed to dominate the thinking of much of the non-Malay electorate and women.