General elections were held in Malaysia between Saturday, 8 July and Saturday, 22 July 1978.^[1] Voting took place in all 154 parliamentary constituencies of Malaysia, each electing one Member of Parliament to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant house of Parliament. State elections also took place in 276 state constituencies (except Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak) on the same day.

Quick Facts All 154 seats in the Dewan Rakyat 78 seats needed for a majority, Registered ...

1978 Malaysian general election

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All 154 seats in the Dewan Rakyat 78 seats needed for a majority
Registered	5,059,689
Turnout	75.30%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Hussein Onn Lim Kit Siang Asri Muda Party BN DAP PAS Last election 60.81%, 135 seats 18.32%, 9 seats 13 seats Seats won 130 16 5 Seat change 5 7 8 Popular vote 1,987,907 664,433 537,720 Percentage 57.23% 19.13% 15.58% Swing 3.58pp 0.81pp –
Prime Minister before election Hussein Onn BN Prime Minister-designate Hussein Onn BN

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It was Hussein Onn's first and only election since he became the country's third Prime Minister in 1976. His Barisan Nasional Party emerged victorious with 131 of the 154 seats in Parliament. Voter turnout was 75.3%.

As expected, Barisan Nasional comfortably maintained its majority in the Malaysian Parliament and thus, gave the Prime Minister the power to form a government with a free hand. Despite the victory, BN actually lost four seats out of 154 seats to the opposition.

The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) withdrew from BN in the midst of the 1977 Kelantan Emergency over disagreements with UMNO over the running of the state government of Kelantan, which PAS had controlled since the first post-independence general election in 1959. With the support of UMNO, detractors within PAS split with the party and formed the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Front (BERJASA). In the election, PAS lost the control of the state for the first time to the UMNO-BERJASA alliance within BN and keeping administration by BN for 12 years until 1990. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has been credited for UMNO's victory in Kelantan.

The opposition garnered 42.8% of total votes. In spite of that, the opposition as one won only 23 seats. Democratic Action Party won the largest slice of the pie among the opposition parties and hence, its leader Lim Kit Siang retained his position as the leader of the opposition that he had obtained four years earlier.

Candidates were returned unopposed in nine constituencies. The registered electors from these constituencies therefore did not cast ballots.

More information Party or alliance, Votes ...

Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	1,987,907	57.23	69	+7
			Malaysian Chinese Association			17	–2
			Sabah People's United Front			9	New
			Sarawak National Party			9	0
			Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu			8	0
			Sarawak United Peoples' Party			6	–1
			United Sabah National Organisation			5	–8
			Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia			4	–1
			Malaysian Indian Congress			3	–1
			People's Progressive Party			0	–1
		Total				130	–5
	Democratic Action Party			664,433	19.13	16	+7
	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party			537,720	15.48	5	–8
	Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak			35,009	1.01	0	New
	Malaysian Social Justice Party			23,792	0.68	0	–1
	Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia			22,031	0.63	0	0
	Social Democratic Party			13,788	0.40	0	New
	Sarawak People's Organisation			10,150	0.29	1	New
	Social United Association Party			5,594	0.16	0	New
	Sabah Democratic People's Party			4,491	0.13	0	New
	Parti Umat Sarawak			3,898	0.11	0	New
	Malaysian Workers' Party			1,731	0.05	0	New
	Sabah Chinese Association			1,305	0.04	0	–3
	Sarawak People's National Party			861	0.02	0	New
	Homeland Consciousness Union			350	0.01	0	0
	Independents			160,370	4.62	2	+1
Total				3,473,430	100.00	154	0
Valid votes				3,473,430	96.57
Invalid/blank votes				123,302	3.43
Total votes				3,596,732	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				4,776,361	75.30
Source: Nohlen et al. CLEA, Thambipillai

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• 1978 Malaysian state elections