The Politics of Locality and Temporality in the 2004 Malaysian Parliamentary Elections‪.‬

Introduction Parliamentary elections in Malaysia are hotly contested affairs. The March 2004 11th General Elections were billed to be one of, if not, the most interesting yet. Abdullah Badawi, Mahathir Mohammad's hand-picked successor who had only in October 2003 been appointed as Prime Minister and leader of UMNO, led the Barisan Nasional (National Front, henceforth referred to as BN) (1) campaign. His popular image and credentials as "Mr Clean" and "Mr Religious" was deemed to augur well for BN, bleaching it of various allegations of mismanagement, cronyism, corruption and, more importantly, bridging the bitter factions in the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the leading member of BN. There was also widespread belief that the country could witness a repeat of the oppositional coalition Barisan Alternatif's (Alternative Coalition, henceforth referred to as BA) strong performance in the 1999 general elections.