electionstracker

Malaysia 1955 general election

What was the result of the 1955 general election in Malaysia?

United Malays National Organisation won 34 of 52 seats with 58.9% of the vote. 82.8% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Malaysia
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • Malaysian Election Corpus, read 8 November 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Results published by the Malaysian Election Corpus, read : United Malays National Organisation won 34 of 52 seats with 58.9% of the vote; 82.8% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • United Malays National Organisation 34 58.9%
  • Malaysian Chinese Association 15 20.1%
  • National Party 0 7.9%
  • Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party 1 4.1%
  • Malaysian Indian Congress 2 2.7%
  • National Association of Perak 0 2.1%
  • Perak Malay League 0 0.5%
  • Labour Party of Malaya 0 0.5%
  • Seats won
  • Share of the vote
27 of 52 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 58.9%

    Share of the vote won by United Malays National Organisation

    United Malays National Organisation won 34 of 52 seats. A majority needs 27.

  2. 82.8%

    Voter turnout

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats%Votes
United Malays National Organisation3458.9589,933
Malaysian Chinese Association1520.1201,212
National Party07.978,909
Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party14.140,667
Independents03.231,642
Malaysian Indian Congress22.726,868
National Association of Perak02.120,996
Perak Malay League00.55,433
Labour Party of Malaya00.54,786
People's Progressive Party00.11,081
Votes by party
  • United Malays National Organisation 589,933
  • Malaysian Chinese Association 201,212
  • National Party 78,909
  • Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party 40,667
  • Independents 31,642
  • Malaysian Indian Congress 26,868
  • National Association of Perak 20,996
  • Perak Malay League 5,433
  • Labour Party of Malaya 4,786
  • People's Progressive Party 1,081

Source: Malaysian Election Corpus (MECo) by Thevesh Thevananthan, which collects the Election Commission of Malaysia's reports of the 1955 federal election, open data under CC0. Shown in our own layout: a party's votes and seats are added up by us from the candidates' rows, and the shares, the turnout, the change on the election before and the indices are worked out by us.

A party's votes are the votes of its candidates added up, and its seats are the constituencies where its candidate won. A share is a party's votes over all valid votes in the constituencies where a vote was held. Candidates who stood without a party are one row, Independents.

1 of the 52 seats was won without a vote, because only one candidate stood. They count as seats for the winner's party and add no votes.

The turnout counts the valid and the rejected votes over the voters on the roll in the constituencies where a vote was held. A constituency won without a vote is left out.

How many people voted?

82.8% of the 1,240,058 registered voters cast a ballot (1,027,150 ballots). 1,001,527 of them were valid votes.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • United Malays National Organisation58.9% of votes65.4% of seats
  • Malaysian Chinese Association20.1% of votes28.8% of seats
  • Malaysian Indian Congress2.7% of votes3.8% of seats
  • Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party4.1% of votes1.9% of seats
  • National Party7.9% of votes0.0% of seats
  • National Association of Perak2.1% of votes0.0% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 10.0 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 2.5 by votes and 2.0 by seats; United Malays National Organisation led Malaysian Chinese Association by 38.8 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of