Malaysia To Hold Six State Elections In Key Test For PM Anwar And His Unity Gov't

Malaysia is due to hold elections in the states of Selangor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah and Penang this Satuday after the dissolution of their assemblies. The six state polls will be closely watched as the first electoral test for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's unity government nine months after it took power. Any major setback could exacerbate tensions between coalition partners Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN), raising the risk of renewed political instability at the federal level. Furthermore, the six states are believed to represent a sufficient degree of diversity for the outcome to be roughly reflective of national sentiment.

• Around half of Malaysian electorate will be eligible to participate in the polls to elect the legislatures of six states, which generate around half of the national GDP. in the lead-up to the elections, three of them - Selangor, Penang and Negeri Sembilan - were controlled by PM Anwar's multi-ethnic Pakatan Harapan alliance. The other three - Keda, Kelantan and Terengganu - were governed by the conservative Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), which is part of the Perikatan Nasional bloc.
• Pakatan Harapan will be trying to lure voters with the promise of strong economic performance (Selangor and Penang are among Malaysia's economic powerhouses), the advocacy for non-Malay rights and defence against "green wave" conservatism associated with PAS. By contrast, the PAS is campaigning on a cultural-religious platform, trying to galvanise support from its ethnic-Malay constituency and tighten its grip on the northern, more rural states.
• A survey conducted by the Ilham Centre showed that PM Anwar's personal popularity is among the key reasons voters support the PH-BN coalition, especially in the states controlled by PH. Interestingly, in the PN-controlled states of Kelantan and Terengganu, the number of undecided voters was close to or exceeded the number of those who ruled out voting for PH-BN. The authors of the survey suggested that Anwar's influence "has opened space for rational Malay voters (...) to move to the middle line," but the unity government should put more work into communicating its policies to voters in rural, predominantly Malay constituencies.