Malaysian general elections set for May 9

According to data from the Election Commission, a total of 14.9 million voters are eligible for voting. Candidates will contest 222 parliamentary seats and 505 state seats, including all states except the eastern Borneo state of Sarawak, which conducted its state election in 2017.

A simple majority of 112 parliamentary seats will deliver a victory to Najib, who is leading the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition against the challenge of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

In the last general election held in 2013, BN managed to win 133 out of the 222 seats, though it obtained less than half of the popular votes.

Both BN and the opposition alliance led by Mahathir, called Pakatan Harapan, have released their campaign manifestos, in which generous benefits were promised to the voters.