Young Hearts and Minds

The 15th general election (GE15) in Malaysia produced surprising results. The conservati ve coaliti on of PN emerged as the dark horse of the electi on, overtaking the longest-ruling coaliti on, BN, by a signifi cant margin. The two largest coaliti ons post-GE15, PH and PN, represent ideological opposites, which may spell a polarized future for Malaysian youths. This paper intends to understand what happened to the youth votes and provide possible hypotheses for future trends.In West Malaysia, consti tuencies with a larger share of young voters (under 30 years old) registered a higher voter turnout rate. A majority of seats with 30 per cent or more of voters under 30 years old (considered "young" seats) were won by PN, followed by PH, and thirdly BN. This demonstrated PN's relati vely stronger hold on young seats in GE15. Discrepancies between pre-GE15 survey fi ndings and actual results could be explained by the Shy PN factor—or PN-leaning voters' reti cence towards revealing their preference—and a swing from BN to PN.

James Chai is Visiting Fellow in the Malaysia Studies Programme at the ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore.