Malaysia's DAP Votes to Stay in Anwar's Government
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- Democratic Action Party (DAP) voted 1,857 to 242 (with 7 spoilt ballots) to stay in PM Anwar Ibrahim's Cabinet at its national conference in Putrajaya on Aug 16, with 52.1% turnout among 2,223 voting delegates
- DAP holds 40 parliamentary seats and is the largest party in the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, making its continued participation critical to Anwar's ability to hold his parliamentary majority
- PH has suffered a string of state election defeats — losing Sabah in November 2025, Johor, and most recently Negeri Sembilan on Aug 1 to a Barisan Nasional (BN)-Perikatan Nasional (PN) alliance that ran a 'Malay unity' campaign and avoided three-cornered fights
- DAP triggered the referendum after failing to win any of the eight seats it contested in the Sabah state election in November 2025
- Negeri Sembilan losses cut deep into PH heavyweights: Transport Minister Loke lost his three-term Chennah seat, while caretaker chief minister Aminuddin Harun also lost his state assembly seat
- Internal dissent surfaced during debate — Kuala Lumpur delegate Sangeet Kaur Deo accused Anwar of 'pitting allies against each other' by empowering UMNO, while Penang delegate Louise Tan called it 'wishful thinking' that DAP could win the next general election simply through good constituency service
- Reforms debated included raising the e-invoicing threshold for ethnic Chinese SMEs and reverting the subsidised RON95 petrol and diesel quota from 200 litres back to 300 litres per month
- Malaysia's next nationwide polls must be called before February 2028, meaning DAP's vote effectively shields Anwar from an early general election
Why it matters: With 40 seats, DAP is the lynchpin of Anwar's 82-seat PH coalition in Parliament — its walkout would have collapsed the government and triggered early polls before the February 2028 deadline. The 242 delegates who voted to quit and Sangeet Kaur Deo's public accusation that Anwar is 'empowering UMNO' signal that PH's Malay-Muslim wing strategy remains contested inside DAP, a fault line that could reopen if more state losses follow.
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