Not long after midnight, the crowd of thousands began to sense that something historic was taking place. They had gathered on a vast lawn to watch the election results roll in through the night, and the mood was cheerful and relaxed. Here, in Petaling Jaya, a heavily residential city that blends into Kuala Lumpur, support for the opposition party, Pakatan Harapan, the Alliance of Hope, runs high, and as P.H.’s tally began to outstrip that of Barisan Nasional, the ruling party, everyone present began to contemplate the unthinkable: the end of the only government Malaysia has ever known.
The ramifications of P.H.’s stunning victory in Wednesday’s elections are only just starting to filter through. The person who appears to be our new prime minister is Mahathir Mohamad, who is 92 years old and earlier served as prime minister — with B.N. Even after the election commission confirmed this morning that P.H. had won at least 112 of the 222 seats in Parliament (or the simple majority that entitles it to form the next government) Najib Razak, the outgoing prime minister, was not clearly conceding his loss. Twelve of the country’s 13 states also held assembly elections yesterday, and B.N. won in just three.
P.H.’s victories defied predictions from almost every corner. Up against B.N.’s massive, well-oiled party machinery and deep pockets, the opposition’s candidates at times looked ragged and disorganized. Even in Kuala Lumpur and its satellite cities, which traditionally enjoy strong opposition support, the dark blue banners of the government coalition crowded out P.H.’s light blue-and-red flags, making the incumbent authority’s presence often feel overwhelming.
Other key factors stacked the odds against P.H. even more: the late-stage redrawing of the boundaries of numerous voting constituencies; the decision to hold the election midweek, which made it difficult for working people to vote (after a popular uproar, May 9 was later declared a public holiday); the disqualification of Tian Chua, a star of the P.H. coalition, for an unpaid fine of about $500; the election commission’s delay in sending postal ballot forms to overseas voters, which resulted in many of them not being able to cast their vote.
Yet the optimism and energy of Election Day were a clear clue about the monumental result to come. At the polling station in the Lembah Pantai constituency, in Kuala Lumpur, for example, the camaraderie was palpable. Volunteers handed out free food and water; strangers helped the old and weak to find seats in the shade during the long wait. Someone offered my mother a wheelchair (she politely declined). People lining up to cast their ballot joked about the heat, and about next seeing one another again in five years.
Lembah Pantai was one of the constituencies targeted by the government as a possible swing seat. Just weeks before Election Day, its boundary was redrawn by the election commission to include huge police barracks, a sizable electoral base with a strong allegiance to the government. Fahmi Fadzil, the P.H. candidate, was a young first-timer up against an experienced B.N. campaigner. In the end, the result wasn’t even close: In winning the seat, Mr. Fadzil increased his predecessor’s majority threefold.
Across the board, the electorate delivered unequivocal messages. The economically powerful states of the Klang Valley — the Federal Territory that consists of Kuala Lumpur and its environs, together with Selangor — were decisively held by P.H., as was Penang, in the north. In Damansara, Selangor state — another constituency expanded by the election commission — the incumbent Tony Pua, a P.H. stalwart, reportedly won more than 80 percent of votes. Elsewhere, too, shocking results began to filter in through the night, as state after state fell into opposition control. At about 3 a.m., the election commission finally confirmed what many of us had been hearing on social media: The influential southern state of Johor, one of the government’s traditional strongholds, had been won by P.H.
Earlier today, while Mr. Najib was not yet conceding exactly, the sultan of Johor, the state’s figurehead, was calling for the prompt formation of the new national government, saying, “We must accept the voice of the people.” P.H. has wrested a majority of seats in the State Assembly from B.N., as well as a majority of Johor’s seats in the national Parliament. Johor is the birthplace of the United Malays National Party, the dominant party in B.N. and of Malaysian politics.
Not only has the Malaysian electorate just overturned a government that has been in place for six decades, it has done so peacefully and democratically despite Mr. Mahathir’s fears that this election might be the “dirtiest” in Malaysia’s history. This country, whose majority is Muslim-Malay, has a long and ugly record of voting along racial lines. In the aftermath of the last general election in 2013, when B.N. suffered significant losses for the first time in its history, the government blamed Malaysia’s ethnic Chinese population for sowing national discord, and spoke of a “tsunami Cina.”
In the days leading up to this election, there was talk instead of a “tsunami rakyat” — the people’s tsunami.
As we Malaysians contemplate the enormity of last night’s results, there is plenty to chew over, not least concerns over the smooth transition of power in a country that has never experienced one. And how do we feel about Mr. Mahathir, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, who came out of retirement promising to defeat the party he ran for decades? Those questions are for the days ahead. For now, Malaysians can exult in the knowledge that they took part of the greatest show of democracy this country has ever seen.
Tash Aw is the author of three novels and a memoir of a Malaysian family, The Face: Strangers on a Pier.