Malaysia’s Melaka election begins as Anwar’s PH seeks to counter resurgent Umno

Voters began casting their ballots on Saturday morning to decide who will govern the southern Malaysian state of Melaka over the next five years, with the odds stacked against Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in its third electoral battle with federal partner Umno in four months.

Malaysia’s election commission expects 70 per cent of the nearly 690,000 eligible voters to cast their ballots at the close of voting, after two weeks of campaigning that saw PH pull out all the stops in its bid to at least deny the incumbent Umno-led coalition a comfortable majority in the 28-seat state legislative assembly.

Anwar and PH are under pressure to put up a strong performance in Melaka after suffering two bruising defeats to Umno in the Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections in July and August, respectively.

While Anwar enjoys a supermajority in parliament, analysts said a return to the status quo in Melaka would embolden Umno and leave the prime minister vulnerable to its repeated demands for an immediate snap national election, with more than a year left in his term.

The Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is vying for 23 seats in Melaka, two more than the 21-seat supermajority it won when the state last went to the polls in 2021.

The remaining five seats in the 2026 election will be contested by BN’s electoral allies in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) opposition bloc, led by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).

This election marks the first formal electoral partnership between Umno and PAS in decades, as the two largest parties representing the interests of the country’s Malay-Muslim majority seek to strengthen their base of voters to win the next general election due by February 2028.

The Umno-PAS tie-up puts Anwar in a bind, as he remains reliant on Umno to provide much-needed Malay support for his multiracial administration.

On Wednesday, the controversial transfer of jailed former leader Najib Razak into house arrest further complicated Anwar’s predicament.

Najib, who was jailed for corruption linked to a former unit of scandal-tainted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, remains a popular national figure. His successful transfer to house arrest is expected to help unite Umno under its president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

As far back as the Sabah state election last November, voters made clear their unhappiness over Anwar’s perceived failure to deliver on promised reforms when they delivered a crushing defeat to his coalition.

PH leaders spent much of their campaign pledging to live up to the expectations of their supporters who helped put them in government after decades in the opposition.

“That is why we must always remember the people’s hopes and expectations,” said Anthony Loke, secretary-general of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which holds the lion’s share of PH’s parliamentary seats but also suffered the worst drubbing in Sabah.

“We must defend those hopes and make them the foundation of our party’s struggle,” Loke said at PH’s campaign finale on Friday, three days after he resigned from Anwar’s cabinet as transport minister over Najib’s transfer to house arrest.

To counter Umno’s momentum, Anwar’s PH struck an informal deal with former allies Bersatu in Melaka, fuelling speculation over his coalition’s potential realignment as its national alliance with erstwhile rivals Umno, formed after the 2022 general election, continues to crumble.

Among the key seats that PH will need to win in Melaka is Bukit Katil, where Adly Zahari – the coalition’s pick as the state’s chief minister if it wins – is seeking a third term.

With Malays accounting for nearly 65 per cent of its voters, Bukit Katil will be a litmus test of whether PH can overturn the Malay nationalist narrative of the Umno-PAS alliance.

Polling began at 8am and is scheduled to close at 6pm. The election commission expects to announce all the election results before midnight.