Malaysia PM basks in vote triumph - BBC News

By Jonathan Kent
BBC, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia's general election had not been expected to produce shocks, but in the end it did.

The country's Prime Minister of five months, Abdullah Badawi, had asked the people to give him a strong mandate and they responded, beyond the ruling coalition's expectations.

The Malaysian media dubbed it the blue wave. The Prime Minister's ruling Barisan Nasional, or National Front, coalition with its dark blue flag washed across Malaysia and its opponents were swept away.

The main opposition party, Pas, which wants to introduce hard-line Islamic laws into Muslim dominated areas, suffered worst.

It boasted 26 MPs in the old 193-strong parliament. Now it has just seven in the enlarged 219-seat assembly.

Worse still it lost control of the state government in rural Terengganu and came within a few hundred votes of surrendering the neighbouring state of Kelantan - its supposedly impregnable stronghold.

[More at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3560519.stm]