Results from the Election Commission showed the National Front with 140 seats or 63.1% parliamentary seats in the 222-seat parliament versus 82 for the opposition or 36.9% of. Another major shock for the Barisan came in Penang where after 36 years of continuous rule, it lost to a loose alliance of opposition parties DAP, PKR and Pas. The opposition will form the next state government in Penang for second time in history. Gerakan, then an opposition party, won Penang almost 40 years ago. In the parliamentary poll the National Front lost its two-thirds majority - needed to make constitutional changes - and control of four state assemblies. It did, however, win a simple majority, taking 139 out of 219 seats, with three more seats yet to declare. Opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim hailed the result as a message that it was time for change in Malaysia. Anwar's Justice Party has 31 seats out of the opposition's 82 so far, making him the leader of the opposition.

Malaysia's main ruling party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), has decided to keep Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as both its leader and prime minister and he has since assumed office. A key partner in the multi-racial coalition, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), dismissed speculation the party might pull out of the coalition that has ruled Malaysia uninterrupted since independence from Britain in 1957, and the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) followed suit after the UMNO meeting.

Malaysia's ruling Barisan National coalition was considered certain to be re-elected in the poll, but risks a backlash by Buddhist ethnic Chinese and Hindu ethnic Indians. The opposition, which wants to deny Barisan a two-thirds majority in parliament, the level needed to change the constitution, drew a protest vote over rising food and fuel costs, street crimes and an influx of cheap foreign labor.