electionstracker

Malaysia 1959 general election

What was the result of the 1959 general election in Malaysia?

United Malays National Organisation won 52 of 104 seats with 35.7% of the vote. 73.5% 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 52 of 104 seats with 35.7% of the vote; 73.5% of registered voters cast a ballot, down 9.4 points on 1955.

  • United Malays National Organisation 52 +18 seats 35.7% −23.2 points
  • Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party 13 +12 seats 21.3% +17.2 points
  • Malaysian Chinese Association 19 +4 seats 14.8% −5.3 points
  • Labour Party of Malaya 6 +6 seats 9.5% +9.0 points
  • People's Progressive Party 4 +4 seats 6.3% +6.2 points
  • Malayan People's Party 2 3.4%
  • National Party 1 +1 seat 2.1% −5.8 points
  • Malaysian Indian Congress 3 +1 seat 1.2% −1.4 points
  • Malaya Party 1 0.9%
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Malaysia 1955 general election, party by party.

53 of 104 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 35.7%

    Share of the vote won by United Malays National Organisation

    United Malays National Organisation won 52 of 104 seats. A majority needs 53.

  2. +18 seats

    Seats gained by United Malays National Organisation

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1955.

  3. 73.5%

    Voter turnout

    Down 9.4 points on 1955.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
United Malays National Organisation52+1835.7−23.2552,595
Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party13+1221.3+17.2329,070
Malaysian Chinese Association19+414.8−5.3229,229
Labour Party of Malaya6+69.5+9.0146,608
People's Progressive Party4+46.3+6.297,391
Independents3+34.8+1.674,194
Malayan People's Party23.453,080
National Party1+12.1−5.832,578
Malaysian Indian Congress3+11.2−1.419,120
Malaya Party10.913,404

± is the change against the Malaysia 1955 general election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • United Malays National Organisation 552,595
  • Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party 329,070
  • Malaysian Chinese Association 229,229
  • Labour Party of Malaya 146,608
  • People's Progressive Party 97,391
  • Independents 74,194
  • Malayan People's Party 53,080
  • National Party 32,578
  • Malaysian Indian Congress 19,120
  • Malaya Party 13,404

Source: Malaysian Election Corpus (MECo) by Thevesh Thevananthan, which collects the Election Commission of Malaysia's reports of the 1959 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.

3 of the 104 seats were 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?

73.5% of the 2,129,732 registered voters cast a ballot (1,564,575 ballots), down 9.4 points on 1955. 1,547,269 of them were valid votes.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • United Malays National Organisation35.7% of votes50.0% of seats
  • Malaysian Chinese Association14.8% of votes18.3% of seats
  • Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party21.3% of votes12.5% of seats
  • Labour Party of Malaya9.5% of votes5.8% of seats
  • People's Progressive Party6.3% of votes3.8% of seats
  • Malaysian Indian Congress1.2% of votes2.9% of seats
  • Malayan People's Party3.4% of votes1.9% of seats
  • National Party2.1% of votes1.0% of seats
  • Malaya Party0.9% of votes1.0% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 12.7 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 4.7 by votes and 3.3 by seats; United Malays National Organisation led Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party by 14.4 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of