Commentary: Melaka votes, Putrajaya watches - the hotly contested state polls could be harbinger of next Malaysia GE

Detailed summary

The upcoming state poll is not really about Melaka. It is a testbed where Malaysia’s warring political parties will experiment with new alliances that are set to determine the…

The upcoming state poll is not really about Melaka. It is a testbed where Malaysia’s warring political parties will experiment with new alliances that are set to determine the shape of the next general election, writes CNA’s Leslie Lopez.

KUALA LUMPUR: For one of Malaysia’s smallest states, Melaka has been punching well above its weight in the country’s drawn-out political chaos.

Following the 2018 general election, two state administrations collapsed in one term.

The Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration headed by then chief minister Adly Zahari fell in March 2020, weeks after the so-called Sheraton Move – the hotel-suite coup in which defecting Members of Parliament (MPs) toppled the PH federal government led by Mahathir Mohamad.

The incoming Barisan Nasional (BN) administration was itself later toppled in October 2021 when four assemblymen withdrew support. The snap state election that followed in November produced pitched three-way contests for the dominant ethnic Malay vote, in which BN prevailed. Thirteen of the state’s 28 state assembly seats were won by under one thousand votes.

When Melaka goes to the polls again on Saturday (Nov 14), the factors that produced the earlier havoc will no longer be in play.The BN coalition, led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, currently dominated by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), are campaigning as allies in a seat-sharing pact.

The PH coalition, on the other hand, appears to have an informal arrangement with Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), the party behind the Sheraton Move that brought down the PH government in the first place.

In the coming days, all eyes will be on Melaka, especially at the administrative capital of Putrajaya, where strains between the components of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Unity Government are being discussed openly in coffeeshops and the corridors of Parliament.

Melaka’s Saturday election has drawn 79 candidates into 11 straight fights…

Opening of the article, excerpted from CNA. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.