12th Malaysian General Election

The 12th Malaysian general election will be held on March 8, 2008, in accordance to Malaysian laws for national elections, which states that a general election must be held no later than five years after its last, since the previous general election was held in 2004. Malaysia's Parliament was dissolved on February 13, 2008, and the following day, the Election Commission announced nominations would be held on February 24, with general polling set for March 8. State assemblies of all states other then Sarawak were also dissolved and their elections will take place at the same time.

Political parties were reported to have began preparations for upcoming polls as early as January 2008. As in 2004, the incumbent Barisan Nasional coalition, as well as the opposition parties represented primarily by PAS, DAP and PKR, are expected to contest in the election.

The general election involves 222 parliamentary seats and 505 state assembly seats. In the last election, 219 parliamentary seats were up for contest. The 3 newly created seats resulted from a border re-demarcation exercise in Sarawak. There are in total 576 state seats but Sarawak did not dissolve its state assembly in anticipation of the election. The last state election for Sarawak was held on May 20, 2006.