Geografi Pilihan Raya Negeri Pulau Pinang: Analisis Prestasi MCA dan DAP dalam Pilihan Raya Umum (PRU) 2013

Electoral Geography of Penang: An Analysis of MCA and DAP in General Election 2013

Abstract

Electoral geography is the study of spatial human organization aspect and election result. Its main focus is human and their interaction with the voting process. General Election (GE) 2013 witnessed the Barisan Nasional (BN) managed to retain power for the 13th term after successfully secured the 133 parliamentary seats compared to the parties in the Pakatan Rakyat (PR), which won 89 parliamentary seats. GE-13 is also said to be ‘Chinese Political Tsunami’ and ‘Urban Political Tsunami’ due to heavy losses of Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) and a big win of Democratic Action Party (DAP). Overall, the GE-13 shows a change in voting patterns that are influenced by the prevailing scenario in the social, economic and political. Penang is a state with many Chinese voters, respectively 53.38 percent. Overall, MCA loss in state legislative assembly (DUN) seat in Penang, while DAP won 19 DUN state seats in Penang. Hence, the result of GE 2013 is associated with the strong support of the Chinese voters to parties in Pakatan Rakyat because the political culture of ethnic Chinese that show they have the dynamic political thinking and open minded in selecting the party or candidate who will be contesting in the election. The factor of ethnic Chinese support towards political parties is more universal which emphasize on national issues such as corruption issue, fairness and transparency compared to the issue of local/regional. They also have the character of ‘dare to change’ in total or referred as a ‘political tsunami’ by breaking the ‘status quo’ wall of BN.