Former national leader Muhyiddin Yassin is seemingly poised to make a comeback as Malaysia’s tenth prime minister after cobbling together a post-election alliance a day after the November 19 polls resulted in a hung parliament with no party or coalition winning a majority.
It marks the first time in Malaysia’s history that a national election did not deliver a clear winner. The vote did, however, produce a clear loser: the Barisan Nasional (BN) alliance whose United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has been the nation’s dominant political force for over six decades.
BN’s Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had sought to retake the government in Putrajaya, calling an election eight months earlier than required amid monsoon rains, only for the coalition to suffer the worst defeat in its political history, winning only 30 seats out of the 178 it contested. The polls, which saw a record turnout of 73%, mark the coalition’s second consecutive electoral defeat after initially losing power in a shock result in 2018.
Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional (PN) secured a stronger-than-expected 73 seats while pledged support from regional parties in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, namely Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), have boosted its coalition count. Post-election mixed messaging around BN’s support for a PN-led pact, however, has muddied the political waters.
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Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.
