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Explainer | Malaysia election 2022: Muhyiddin on pole position, Anwar still trying, Zahid under pressure – what you need to know after Saturday’s deadlocked vote
- Muhyiddin’s strategy of pitching Perikatan Nasional as conservative alternative to major parties could have worked in rural constituencies
- Anwar could run risk of alienating own party members as he considers possible collaboration with Barisan Nasional to form coalition government
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Malaysia’s political scene remains extremely fluid after Saturday’s deadlocked election, where none of the main contesting coalitions managed to obtain a simple majority to form the next government.
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The reformist Pakatan Harapan (PH) alliance led by long-time opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim won 82 parliamentary seats, short of the 112 needed for a majority. Coming in second was the fairly new Perikatan Nasional (PN) alliance headed by ex-prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, which won 73 seats.
Some observers had earlier expected PN – comprising Muhyiddin’s Malays-only Bersatu party and the Islamist PAS – to suffer a wipeout in Saturday’s polls. Instead, it made major inroads across the country on the back of what some analysts are calling a “gelombang hijau” or “green wave” – referencing PAS’ white moon on green background emblem.
Barisan Nasional (BN), the de facto governing alliance before the polls – and Malaysia’s long-time party of government – suffered heavy defeats, mainly at the hands of PN. The election result marks a major embarrassment for BN and its chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who had pushed for an early vote on the pretext that the ground was sweet in favour of the alliance.
Here are the key facts on what lies ahead.
Muhyiddin’s machinations
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