General elections were held in Malaysia on Sunday, 5 May 2013. Voting took place in all 222 parliamentary constituencies, each electing one MP to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant house of Parliament. State elections also took place in 505 state constituencies in 12 of the 13 states (excluding Sarawak) on the same day. The elections were the first since Najib Razak became Prime Minister in 2009. The unofficial opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition led by Anwar Ibrahim received a majority of the vote, with its three member parties collectively receiving 50.9% of the vote. However, they won only 89 of the 222 seats. The incumbent governing alliance, Barisan Nasional, received 47.4% of the vote and won 133 seats, giving Najib a second term in office. This was the best performance shown by the opposition against the Barisan Nasional and the first time Barisan Nasional had received less than half the popular vote. Because Barisan Nasional had won a majority despite receiving fewer votes than the opposition, the elections were followed by protests and accusations of gerrymandering. Background The Malaysian Parliament was dissolved on 3 April 2013 by Tuanku Abdul Halim, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the advice of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Tun Razak. The Prime Minister made a televised statement announcing the dissolution of the 12th Parliament at 11:30 am local time the same day. Following the dissolution of Parliament, a general election was required to be held within 60 days, between 3 April and 2 June 2013, with the date to be decided by the Election Commission. On 10 April 2013, the Election Commission of Malaysia announced that nominations for election candidates would be held on 20 April, with the general election set for 5 May. The early voting date of 30 April was also announced by the Election Commission. Official campaigning began on 20 April, which allowed for a 15-day campaigning period. Postal voting for eligible overseas Malaysians was announced to happen on 28 April 2013. Malaysian representative offices would open on that day for this purpose from 9 am to 6 pm local time. Offices in London and Melbourne would close at 8 pm instead, for the number of postal voters registered in those cities exceeded 1,000. Dissolution of state legislative assemblies In accordance with Malaysian law, the parliament as well as the legislative assemblies of each state (Dewan Undangan Negeri) would automatically dissolve on