The coalition who have ruled Malaysia for 56 years, Barisan Nasional (BN), won yesterday’s general election.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has frequently spouted anti-gay rhetoric during the election campaign and before, keeps his position as leader of the country.

International observer Human Rights Watch (HRW) was concerned in the run up to the election that there was violence and physical intimidation on both sides and news websites that challenged the government were cyber attacked.

But HRW said election day was peaceful with an 80% voter turn-out.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said there were many election irregularities and the Electoral Commission has failed to deliver a free and fair vote. He refused to concede defeat.

Malaysian LGBT rights activist Pang Khee Teik expressed his disappointment with the result on Facebook.

‘Detains dissidents. Bans equality. Steals elections. Malaysia never fails to punish us for the crime of hoping,’ said Pang.

‘BN, Malaysia deserves so much better than you. Malaysia, hang in there, I won’t give up on us.’

But Pang pointed out in an interview with Gay Star News that four politicians who have vigorously pursued an anti-gay agenda had been voted out.

‘Ibrahim Ali who organized protests against [LGBT rights festival] Seksualiti Merdeka; Zulkifli Noordin who is from the same Malay supremacist organization as Ibrahim Ali; deputy education minister Puad Zarkashi who officiated all those anti-LGBT seminars aimed at teaching parents and teachers how to curb homosexuality and transsexuality and Chief Minister of Melaka state Ali Rustam who wanted to enact laws to prevent LGBT activism in his state. Good riddance to them.

‘But that still leaves us with Prime Minister Najib Razak and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, both of whom have made promises to curb LGBTs as an election platform.’

The BN government in Malaysia has supported ‘rehab’ centers for gay men and an anti-LGBT propaganda play which is touring universities across the country.

Pang said the LGBT rights movement in Malaysia, who had decided to ‘lay low’ during the election campaign lest their activities be politically targeted, have not yet decided what their next moves will be.

In an interview with Gay Star News last week Human Rights Watch Asia deputy direction Phil Robertson said the constrained and vulnerable position of the LGBT community in Malaysia puts a responsibility on the international community to do what they can to support them.

‘Where the lack of protection is universal for the LGBT community in Malaysia then it’s really the duty of the international community to defend human rights,’ he said.