Electoral Politics in Malaysia: ‘Managing’ Elections in a Plural Society

Malaysia: Lim Hong Hai Electoral Politics in Malaysia: Managing Elections in a plural form Society Lim Hong Hai Introduction Elections are copes for the highest stakes in national politics and the electoral system is a set of predetermined rules for conducting elections and determining their outcome. thus defined, the electoral system is distinguishable from the actual conduct of elections as well as from the wider conditions surrounding the electoral contest, such as the state of civil liberties, restraints on the opposition and access to the pack media. While all these aspects are of obvious importance to forgo and fair elections, the main interest of this study is the electoral system. The electoral system is important because it exerts an essential and independent effect on electoral outcomes, and hence on the balance of advantage among contestants in the struggle for representation and power in the governmental system. Channelled by and buffeting formal policy-making structures, of which the electoral system is part, this contest for power is inevitably an expression of salient cleavages in society. In Malaysia, political mobilization follows ethnic divisions and the struggle for power is among political parties representing particular ethnic groups.

It is therefore essential to begin with more or less basic information on the countrys political system and plural society. The Federation of Malaysia consists of 11 states in peninsular Malaysia (i.e. the former Federation of Malaya, which gained independence from the British in 1957) and the easternmost Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, which joined the Federation of Malaya to form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. Besides being federal, the form of government is constitutional, monarchical and parliamentary at both the state and federal levels. Each of the 13 states and the Federation has a written constitution. The Federal Constitution allocates intimately all important powers as well as the major(ip) sources of revenue to... If you want to get a full essay, articulate it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

Ordercustompaper.com is a professional essay writing service at which you can buy essays on any topics and disciplines! All custom essays are written by professional writers!