ABSTRACT
The 13th general election in 2013 (GE13) was the most recent general election in Malaysia. It was a display of stiff competition as the main opposition coalition at the time, Pakatan Rakyat (PR), was a strong competitor for Barisan Nasional (BN), the ruling coalition. BN learned its lesson from the 12th general election campaign in 2008 (GE12) and came up with a large scale campaign and active participation on social media in GE13. The former prime minister of Malaysia who led the GE12 campaign, Abdullah Badawi, mentioned it was “a serious misjudgment” when BN depended on government-controlled newspapers and television as the opposition attracted young voters with mobile phone text messages and blogs for the elections (“Malaysian leader admits ignoring Internet was a mistake,” 2008). PR performed better in the election compared to the ruling coalition in GE12, increasing their seats from 19 to 82 in a parliament of 222 members. That election denied BN a two-thirds majority in parliament.
