(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-09 15:33

KUALA lUMPUR - Malaysia's ruling coalition won the 12th general election held on Saturday, but lost its dominant two-thirds majority in the parliament.

At around 01:30 a.m. local time on Sunday morning, Malaysia's Election Commission (EC) announced that the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), or National Front, won 127 parliamentary seats, exceeding a simple majority to form a new government.

After the EC's announcement of the BN victory, Malaysian Prime Minister and BN Chairman Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that he would have a meeting with Supreme Head Mizan Zainal Abidin on Monday to discuss the formation of a new government.

He held up hand of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to mark the BN victory at a press conference, but did not make much comment on the results of the election.

Although the final results have not been revealed as voting at some locations in East Malaysia's Sarawak State has to finish on Sunday, the BN has lost its two-thirds majority in the lower house of the parliament, according to the EC.

It was reported that the BN lost its dominant control of the parliament and the biggest setback after it administered the country for 50 years.

According to the results of 219 seats of the 222-seat lower house of the 12th Parliament announced by the EC so for, the BN has only secured 137 seats, including eight won uncontested, far less than the two-thirds majority line of 148 seats.

In the 11th Parliament which was dissolved on February 13, the BN held 199 of the 219 seats in the lower house.

During the Saturday election, the BN also failed to take back the state of Kelantan from the opposition party -- the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS), and even more it lost four other states -- Penang, Kedah, Selangor and Perak.

According to the results revealed by the EC, the opposition parties, mainly including the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the PAS and the People's Justice Party (PKR), have won a simple majority in the state assemblies in the states.

In the last general election, in the total of 13 states in the country, the BN, which also consisted of 14 parties, held dominant seats in the legislative assemblies in 12 ones, excluding Kelantan.

Some leaders or ministers of component parties of the BN also suffered during the election, got lost their parliamentary seats, including Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) President Samy Vellu, Acting President Koh Tsu Koon of the People's Movement Party, and the incumbent Malaysian Women,Family and Social Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

Many of the first time contestants from the BN also "sank" in the election scenario this year, which was described by some local media as "a political tsunami" or "unprecedented".

Badawi and Najib won their parliamentary seats respectively with a significant margin in their own constituencies.

Malaysia's new government is expected to come into power soon.