Trend of Voting in Malaysian General Election 2018 in Urban and Rural Area

Abstract

The results of the 2018 General Election in Malaysia show interesting and varied political dynamics based on issues, leadership, campaign strategies, winning and defeat factors, polling patterns, and also location. Hence the purpose of writing this article is to analyze the trend of polling in GE 2018 based on urban and rural areas according to 222 parliamentary constituencies in the country. The writing of this article is produced through the analysis of the GE13 2018 decision-making data for the Parliamentary constituencies as well as the in-depth analysis of secondary information from mainstream media and social media directly involved in the GE 2018. The findings show that almost all urban areas were won by Pakatan Harapan (PH) and some were won by PAS, in urban areas in the East Coast region of Peninsular Malaysia. The rural areas in majority of Malays areas are dominated by UMNO/BN and PAS in Kelantan, Terengganu, and also rural parts of Kedah. There are also rural areas won by either BN, PAS, and PH with a slight majority because of the split of the three-party blocks. This is due to the different demographic segments of the voters either by local voters, young voters, outsiders, and even higher educated voters. Hence, the pattern of voting by geographical location in the GE 2018 is very interesting and compositing to be studied and deserves to be taken into account by the concerned parties, especially political parties, governments, and political researchers in order to be a solution to produce rational political thinking and to follow the current trends to care for the well-being of the common people.