THE POLITICAL TUSSLE OVER FELDA LAND SCHEMES – UMNO STRENGTHENS ITS MALAY RURAL FORTRESS IN 13TH GENERAL ELECTION

This paper is about the political economy of Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) and its important place in the electoral politics of the 13th General Election (GE13) held on 5 May 2013. In a heavily contested election, the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN) has held on to power by winning by a 22-seat majority, despite its worst performance with the loss of the national popular vote and questions about irregularities. However, the hope of Pakatan Rakyat (PR), the opposition coalition, to make inroads in BN s proverbial FELDA fortress vote bank was disappointed. Instead, there were swings toward BN. Winning FELDA areas are important to building up its rural base, in order to win enough seats to govern.