Barisan, Perikatan Seal Pact for Melaka State Election on Nov. 14

Photo: Philip Nalangan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (file photo of the Stadthuys in Melaka city).

Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN) signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, to avoid contesting against each other in the Melaka state election, according to The Star. The pact unites two coalitions that were rivals in the 2021 Melaka polls ahead of nomination day on Saturday, Oct. 31.

The Melaka state election calendar

Malaysia’s Election Commission set nomination for Oct. 31, early voting for Nov. 10 and polling for Nov. 14, Malay Mail reported. Caretaker Chief Minister Ab Rauf Yusoh of UMNO, the dominant party in BN, leads the state government until the vote. Official information is published by the Election Commission.

What the BN-PN pact says

Under the agreement, BN will contest 21 seats, including two for the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and one for the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), and PN, led on the ground by the Islamist party PAS, will contest seven, the New Straits Times reported. The two sides said they would release a joint manifesto after nomination. UMNO secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki and PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan signed the MoU, with UMNO president and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as witness.

The arrangement is unusual because BN is part of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s federal unity government with Pakatan Harapan (PH), while PN leads the federal opposition. In Melaka, PH will therefore face a BN-PN alliance, The Star reported.

By the numbers: the 2021 result

In the November 2021 Melaka election, BN won 21 of the 28 seats, PH won five and PN two, according to Election Commission results. That result gave BN a two-thirds majority in the assembly. The 2026 pact allocates PN far more seats to contest than it won last time, which means some seats where BN candidates ran in 2021 will go to PAS or its partners.

Why the Melaka vote matters nationally

State elections in Malaysia are often read as tests of national coalitions. A BN-PN win would show that the two Malay-majority blocs can cooperate at the ballot box, a combination that could shape the next general election. A strong PH showing would suggest the federal unity government’s support holds even without its BN partner in the state.

Melaka’s previous election in 2021 was itself called early after defections collapsed the state government, a pattern of instability that Malaysia’s 2022 anti-hopping law was designed to curb. Turnout in 2021 was about 66%, according to the Election Commission, lower than usual because of COVID-19 restrictions.

We will follow nomination day and the campaign. For other elections and politics across the region, see our Southeast Asia news hub.

Background: Malaysia’s shifting alliances

Malaysia’s politics have been unusually fluid since the 2018 general election, when Barisan Nasional lost federal power for the first time since independence. Governments changed in 2020 and 2021 after defections, and the 2022 general election produced a hung parliament. Anwar Ibrahim then formed a unity government that brought PH and BN together, while PN, made up of Bersatu and PAS, became the main opposition.

PAS won the most seats of any single party in 2022, and its strength among Malay voters has pushed UMNO to reconsider its options. A formal BN-PN pact in Melaka is the clearest sign yet of cooperation between UMNO and PAS at state level since the end of their earlier Muafakat Nasional arrangement.

Melaka, a UNESCO World Heritage city on the Strait of Malacca about two hours’ drive south of Kuala Lumpur, has around 1 million residents. Its assembly elects the chief minister from the majority party or coalition. With 28 seats, a party or coalition needs 15 to govern. In 2021, BN’s 21 seats gave it a comfortable majority, and the chief minister’s post has stayed with UMNO since. Voters aged 18 and over have been automatically registered since a 2021 change to the law, which expanded the electorate across Malaysia.

Nomination day on Oct. 31 will confirm final candidates and whether any independents or smaller parties join the race. The Election Commission will publish official results on the night of Nov. 14.

Related coverage: Jakarta’s #IndonesiaSadar protest. Indonesia-Singapore haze task force. Find all of our regional reporting, plus country facts and official resources, on the Southeast Asia news hub.

Sources

• The Star: Barisan and Perikatan formalise cooperation with MoU
• New Straits Times: BN-PN seat allocation for Melaka
• Malay Mail: Melaka state election set for Nov 14 polling, Oct 31 nomination

Additional sources

• Election Commission of Malaysia