The results of Malaysia's elections had always been dull in one respect : the ruling coalition was so well entrenched that in the past, no observer saw a possible change of government, nor even the remote chance that the opposition could break the government's two-third majority in the national Parliament. There was the possibility of the opposition effecting a change in government only at the state level in one or two of the thirteen states. Ever since the debacle in the 1969 elections, the ruling coalition had seemed quite unshakeable. However, in 1990, the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition appeared vulnerable. The opposition had galvernized around Tengku Razaleigh and organized two fronts to take on the ruling coalition. In this election, the opposition was not only talking in terms of denying the Barisan Nasional of the two-third majority, but of forming the next government with the co-operation of some political parties in Sabah and Sarawak.

At the state level, the opposition was confident of capturing the state government in at least two states. Kelantan was not only Tengku Razaleigh's home state, but also the stronghold of PAS which had won ten state seats and lost in fourteen other constituencies by majorities of less than 1,000 votes in the previous election. In Penang, the DAP had launched its “do or die” battle to take over the state government by moving its party stalwarts from their “safe” seats to contest against the “strongmen” from the ruling coalition. Backed by the assumption that the DAP would continue to win in its traditional strongholds anyway, this step was deemed necessary for the party to gain additional seats at the expense of the ruling coalition. The calculation was that with Semangat '46 winning in a few constituencies, an opposition takeover was not an impossible target.

For months, the opposition had been campaigning on the issue of a twocoalition system and the idea seemed to have been well received by the public.