12th Malaysian Parliament

The 12th Malaysian Parliament is the current meeting of the legislative branch of the government of Malaysia, the Parliament, comprising the directly elected lower house, the Dewan Rakyat, and the appointed upper house, the Dewan Negara. It is scheduled to meet at the Malaysian Houses of Parliament from 28 April 2008 until the Yang di-Pertuan Agong next dissolves Parliament, or 29 April 2013, when it will automatically dissolve itself under the Constitution of Malaysia.

The 12th Parliament was the first to meet where the governing Barisan Nasional coalition does not have a 2/3 supermajority in the Dewan Rakyat necessary to amend the Constitution. In the 2008 general election, opposition parties won a record 82 of the 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, quadrupling the share they held previously. On April 1, leaders from Parti Keadilan Rakyat, the Democratic Action Party and PAS announced the formation of the Pakatan Rakyat, a coalition comprising the three main opposition parties in Parliament. They also announced that Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, president of PKR, would be the new Leader of the Opposition, making her the first woman to assume the post. The 12th Parliament was also the first to have regular live broadcasts of Dewan Rakyat debates on national public television, and saw the first instance of a supply bill approved by division instead of a voice vote. In June 2008, the two Members of Parliament from the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP, a BN component party) announced they would be filing a motion of no confidence against the Prime Minister, a first in Malaysian Parliamentary history.