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Supporters of Anwar Ibrahim fill a stadium. Photo: EPA

How they see it

Malaysia's national elections

1. The Jakarta Post

Malaysia's governing coalition extended its unchallenged success in the national elections ever since our neighbouring country's independence from Britain in 1957. … However, despite its recurrent victories, the ruling coalition suffered another blow in this year's elections as it failed to achieve a stronger five-year mandate … The Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-biggest party in the ruling coalition, saw many of its candidates defeated as Malaysia's ethnic Chinese minority community continued to abandon the National Front … The first thing that the prime minister needs to do is to fulfil all his campaign promises - and pay heed to all the criticism and concerns from the opposition. Jakarta

 

2. Star

The People's Verdict is in. And the people have delivered their mandate to the National Front to run the federal government for another five years … From the people's perspective, it would not be wrong to say that the results, democratically expressed through the ballot box, are a fair representation of the people's will. The battle to win hearts and minds will continue, but we must not once again slip into the post-2008 scenario where heavy and divisive politicking was the order of the day … To be sure, there are still some issues where the racial and religious divides are difficult to resolve. But we must have hope that in our very own diversity lie our fundamental strengths. Kuala Lumpur

 

3. Gulf News

The electoral victory of Malaysia's ruling coalition was decisive, even if it was its worst result in more than 56 years in power … The government failed to win back its two-thirds majority in parliament, which it needs if it is to change the constitution. Anwar Ibrahim has accused the coalition of widespread fraud, but even if he manages to prove his accusations in a few cases, that will not alter the overall verdict that gives Prime Minister Najib Razak another spell in power. After his victory, Najib was rightly worried about some socially divisive aspects of the vote and he spoke of the need to address the concerns of ethnic Chinese Malaysians, who had almost all backed the opposition. Dubai

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: How they see it
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