This dashboard tracks three states for GE16: not called, called with no polling date yet, and called with a polling date set. This page explains the sequence behind those states, from dissolution to nomination to polling, and why the middle state, called but undated, is a real stage of the process rather than a gap in the record.
the act that starts a Malaysian general election
A Malaysian general election begins with the dissolution of the Dewan Rakyat, Parliament's elected lower house, the event that opens the interim period running through to the appointment of the next elected government. Unless elections are called prematurely, the Dewan Rakyat's five-year term simply runs its course and dissolution follows. Dissolving early is the ordinary case this project's own data notes describe, rather than the exception.
Article 55(4) of the Federal Constitution requires a general election to be held within 60 days of the Dewan Rakyat's dissolution. The Dewan Rakyat's five-year mandate expires under Article 55(3) of the Federal Constitution. Combined, the two provisions fix GE16's own deadline: the current Dewan Rakyat's first sitting was on 19 December 2022, so it dissolves automatically five years later, on 19 December 2027, if not dissolved earlier, putting the last possible date for GE16 at 17 February 2028.
where the Election Commission sets the dates dissolution itself doesn't fix
Dissolution does not itself fix when nomination day or polling day fall. The Election Commission of Malaysia sets and announces those separately, after dissolution has already happened. This project's own data notes record that gap as typically running a week or two.
On nomination day, candidates present their nomination papers to the returning officer for their constituency, and those papers can be rejected if they don't comply with the Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulations.
where voters decide, inside the window dissolution opened
Polling day itself falls inside the same 60-day window Article 55(4) sets running from dissolution (see Dissolution above). Nomination, the campaign that follows it, and polling all have to land inside that one constitutional deadline. For what a Seat is and how many the Dewan Rakyat has, see the glossary. Once a polling date is set, it is context for reading this site's Projection, not an input the Swing Model consumes.
This dashboard's Election Status is driven by two dates, when the Dewan Rakyat was dissolved and when polling was set, and derives what it displays from which of those two dates are present.
Before the Dewan Rakyat is dissolved, GE16 has simply not been called, and this dashboard records no dissolution date and no polling date. The Dewan Rakyat continues sitting, bound only by the constitutional deadline the five-year term and the 60-day rule together set.
Between dissolution and the Election Commission's announcement of the timetable, this dashboard records a dissolution date and no polling date. This dashboard leaves the polling field unset for that interval rather than filling it with a guess.
Once the Election Commission announces the timetable, this dashboard's record has both dates: the dissolution date set earlier, and the polling date the Commission has now announced.