electionstracker

Malaysia 1974 general election

What was the result of the 1974 general election in Malaysia?

United Malays National Organisation won 61 of 154 seats with 22.9% of the vote. 75.0% 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 61 of 154 seats with 22.9% of the vote; 75.0% of registered voters cast a ballot, up 1.4 points on 1969.

  • United Malays National Organisation 61 +9 seats 22.9% −7.1 points
  • Democratic Action Party 9 −4 seats 18.3% +6.3 points
  • Malaysian Chinese Association 19 +6 seats 14.6% +2.9 points
  • Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party 14 +2 seats 7.0% −13.9 points
  • Sarawak National Party 9 0 seats 5.5% +2.8 points
  • Malaysian Social Justice Party 1 5.1%
  • Malaysian People's Movement Party 5 −3 seats 4.5% −3.0 points
  • Malaysian People's Socialist Party 0 0 seats 4.0% +2.8 points
  • Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Sarawak 8 3.9%
  • Sarawak United Peoples' Party 7 +2 seats 3.1% 0.0 points
  • Malaysian Indian Congress 4 +2 seats 2.3% +1.2 points
  • People's Progressive Party 1 −3 seats 2.2% −1.2 points
  • 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 1969 general election, party by party.

78 of 154 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 22.9%

    Share of the vote won by United Malays National Organisation

    United Malays National Organisation won 61 of 154 seats. A majority needs 78.

  2. +9 seats

    Seats gained by United Malays National Organisation

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1969. Democratic Action Party lost 4 seats.

  3. 75.0%

    Voter turnout

    Up 1.4 points on 1969.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
United Malays National Organisation61+922.9−7.1484,537
Democratic Action Party9−418.3+6.3387,839
Malaysian Chinese Association19+614.6+2.9310,551
Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party14+27.0−13.9148,386
Independents0−16.0+4.2126,599
Sarawak National Party905.5+2.8117,503
Malaysian Social Justice Party15.1108,709
Malaysian People's Movement Party5−34.5−3.095,280
Malaysian People's Socialist Party004.0+2.884,206
Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Sarawak83.982,853
Sarawak United Peoples' Party7+23.10.065,104
Malaysian Indian Congress4+22.3+1.248,380
The other parties and groups
PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
People's Progressive Party1−32.2−1.245,904
United Sabah National Organisation1300.3−0.36,468
KITA (ballot label)00.36,228
Independent People's Progressive Party00.11,356
Sabah Chinese Association300.0−0.80

± is the change against the Malaysia 1969 general election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • United Malays National Organisation 484,537
  • Democratic Action Party 387,839
  • Malaysian Chinese Association 310,551
  • Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party 148,386
  • Independents 126,599
  • Sarawak National Party 117,503
  • Malaysian Social Justice Party 108,709
  • Malaysian People's Movement Party 95,280
  • Malaysian People's Socialist Party 84,206
  • Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Sarawak 82,853
  • Sarawak United Peoples' Party 65,104
  • Malaysian Indian Congress 48,380
  • People's Progressive Party 45,904
  • United Sabah National Organisation 6,468
  • KITA (ballot label) 6,228
  • Independent People's Progressive Party 1,356
  • Sabah Chinese Association 0

Source: Malaysian Election Corpus (MECo) by Thevesh Thevananthan, which collects the Election Commission of Malaysia's reports of the 1974 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.

47 of the 154 seats were won without a vote, because only one candidate stood. They count as seats for the winner's party and add no votes.

About the data: The corpus names the candidates with the id of a party formed in 2011; we keep only their ballot label, KITA, and do not join them to the party of 2011.

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?

75.0% of the 2,960,290 registered voters cast a ballot (2,220,170 ballots), up 1.4 points on 1969. 2,119,903 of them were valid votes.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • United Malays National Organisation22.9% of votes39.6% of seats
  • Malaysian Chinese Association14.6% of votes12.3% of seats
  • Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party7.0% of votes9.1% of seats
  • United Sabah National Organisation0.3% of votes8.4% of seats
  • Democratic Action Party18.3% of votes5.8% of seats
  • Sarawak National Party5.5% of votes5.8% of seats
  • Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Sarawak3.9% of votes5.2% of seats
  • Sarawak United Peoples' Party3.1% of votes4.5% of seats
  • Malaysian People's Movement Party4.5% of votes3.2% of seats
  • Malaysian Indian Congress2.3% of votes2.6% of seats
  • Sabah Chinese Association0.0% of votes1.9% of seats
  • Malaysian Social Justice Party5.1% of votes0.6% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 17.2 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 7.8 by votes and 5.0 by seats; United Malays National Organisation led Democratic Action Party by 4.6 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of