The Malaysian Elections Web Archive brings together a collection of websites that document the Malaysian General Elections of 2013 and 2018, and includes sites by governmental, political, ethno-religious, human rights, civil society, and student groups, as well as some Malaysian newspapers. The archive also features blogs by prominent public personalities, and special interest groups. The Malaysian General Elections of 2013 and 2018 were pivotal in altering the political landscape of the country. 2013 saw the ruling party retain power but also saw significant gains for the opposition. The 2018 General Elections took place in the context of a widespread public outcry concerning accusations of corruption involving the Prime Minister at the time, Najib Razak of the Barisan Nasional political coalition. The opposition—a four-party conjunction called Pakatan Harapan—was headed by Anwar Ibrahim in alliance with former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who had previously led the government from 1981-2003. In this historic election, Pakatan Harapan became the first opposition party to win a Malaysian General Election, ending almost sixty years of rule by Barisan Nasional. This outcome reconfigured Malaysian politics and its implications have been far-reaching.

Staff from the Library of Congress Jakarta Office and the Asian Division in Washington, D.C. selected the websites and reviewed the archived results.

Collection Period:
November 2011 to August 2012
April 2018 to October 2018

Frequency of Collection: Sites in the collection were targeted for capture monthly or weekly.

Languages: Collection material in Malay and English, with Chinese, Tamil, and Iban.