2008 Malaysian general election
General elections were held in Malaysia on Saturday, 8 March 2008. Voting took place in all 222 parliamentary constituencies of Malaysia, each electing one Member of Parliament to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant house of Parliament. State elections also took place in 505 state constituencies in 12 of the 13 states on the same day.
Image: Abdullah Badawi 2008 elections (cropped 3to 4 portrait)
Image: Wan Azizah (3to 4)
The 2007 Bersih rally was largest public protest since 1998. HINDRAF organised another large-scale rally a few weeks later.
Campaign banners at Taman Kinrara, Selangor. The state assembly seat of Kinrara is contested by both National Front (represented by incumbent Kaw Cheong Wei) and the Democratic Action Party (represented by Teresa Kok Suh Sim). Also depicted are incumbent Lau Yeng Peng (BN-Gerakan) and Gobind Singh Deo (DAP), contesting for the parliamentary seat of Puchong.
Tun Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi is a Malaysian retired politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2003 to 2009. He was also the sixth president of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the largest political party in Malaysia, and led the governing Barisan Nasional (BN) parliamentary coalition. He is informally known as Pak Lah, Pak meaning 'Uncle' or 'Sir', while Lah is taken from his name 'Abdullah'. He was also a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kepala Batas for eight consecutive terms, from 1978 to 2013. During the later part of Abdullah's administration, his government faced criticism for economic policies and performance, including concerns about inflation and the rising cost of living.
Abdullah in 2009
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi with Russian President Vladimir Putin on 16 October 2003.
U.S. president George W. Bush meets with Abdullah during Bush's visit to New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, on 18 September 2006.
Badawi with his wife, Jeanne Abdullah