University Students and Voting Behavior in General Elections: Perceptions on Malaysian Political Parties Leadership

Malaysia’s 13th General Election held on 5 May 2013 was one of the most exciting General Elections in Malaysia’s political history. The result showed that the ruling party Barisan Nasional (National Front) or BN and the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) or PR contested closely in the 222 Parliamentary seats. Although the results showed a rather status quo in favour of the ruling party, the opposition coalition managed to increase their seats to 89 compared to 82 from the 2008 12th General Election while the seats obtained by the ruling party reduced to 133 from 140 seats. National Youth Survey by the Asia Foundation indicated that the political thinking of the youths in Malaysia are not static but have changed accordingly. This new shift allows this paper to discuss the position of the youth in Malaysia with a reference to the selected university students on Malaysian political parties’ leadership and which party will benefit from their role in Malaysian politics.