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Malaysian ruling coalition, led by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has won a simple majority of 127 seats out of the 219 parliamentary seats in the lower house of parliament in the country's 11th general election on Sunday.
The Barisan Nasional (BN), also the National Front, won 255 seats in state assemblies nationwide as counting of votes still continues.
The Democratic Action Party (DAP), major opposition party in the country, won seven seats in the parliament and another seven state assembly seats.
The largest opposition Islamic Party (PAS) won one parliamentary seat and 10 state assembly seats so far.
Independent candidates won one parliamentary seat and one state assembly seat up to now.
Smooth polling was reported in various parts of Malaysia as a total of 7,300 polling centers opened simultaneously nationwide from 8 am to 5 pm local time on Sunday.
Of the country's 23-million population, a total of 10.28 million people are eligible to vote in the election.
Prime Minister Abdullah and his wife Endon Mahmood cast vote in the Kepala Batas constituency in the northern state of Pinang Sunday morning.
After casting his vote, Abdullah appealed to the voters to give a clear mandate to the ruling coalition -- the National Front.
The front, grouping 14 political parties, has formed every government in Malaysia since its independence from Britain in 1957.
A total of 202 parliamentary seats and 493 state seats were up for grabs in the election, mostly in one-on-one contests between the ruling National Front and the main opposition parties, the PAS, the DAP and the National Justice Party (Keadilan).
The front began with a rousing start on the nomination day of March 13, winning 14 parliamentary seats and seven state seats uncontested.
It got three more parliamentary seats and four state seats when opposing candidates backed out within the subsequent three-day cooling period.
Meanwhile, the largest opposition PAS also captured a state seat in Johor State on the nomination day uncontested.
The victory showed that Malaysian voters have endorsed a strong mandate to the National Front, a 14-member coalition headed by Prime Minister Abdullah who assumed office four months ago.
Local political analysts say Abdullah's policies such as fighting corruption, improving the public service system and keeping transparent administration have won him support from the voters.
Curbing or even eradicating corruption in both public and private sectors would drastically cut the cost of business, improve efficiency, ensure faster implementation of projects and ultimately benefit the Malaysians, they say.
(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2004)
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