Melaka state election: Anwar's PH, Muhyiddin's Bersatu avoid clashes in 4 seats as candidates confirmed — SkimNews
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- Election Commission confirmed candidates for all 28 Melaka seats, officially beginning campaigning on Oct 31 for the Nov 14 election with 79 candidates: 11 straight fights, 11 three-cornered contests and six four-cornered contests.
- Pakatan Harapan will contest 24 seats while Bersatu fields seven; Bersatu will contest Lendu, Sungai Udang, Pantai Kundor and Bemban, the four places PH left without a candidate.
- Bersatu signed a confidence-and-supply agreement to support Anwar’s government on key parliamentary votes on Thursday, but Muhyiddin Yassin said it did not signal an electoral pact; PH Plus discussions with Bersatu then fell through.
- Azmi Hassan called it “pseudo cooperation” while James Chin said an informal understanding was “quite obvious”; despite their different labels, both saw cooperation underway, and DAP opposed it after Bersatu’s 2020 Sheraton Move.
- Barisan Nasional is widely expected to retain control of Melaka and will contest 23 seats with Perikatan Nasional in the remaining five; their partnership began after PAS called for supporters to back BN in Johor in July and seized control from PH with a supermajority in Negeri Sembilan in August.
- Malaysian Chinese Association threatened to derail the BN-PN alliance over seat allocation, then received two more seats—Bandar Hilir and Kota Laksamana—after eleventh-hour talks.
Why it matters: Bersatu fields candidates in four constituencies without a PH opponent, while BN and PN cover all 28 seats. For Muhyiddin’s party, the Nov. 14 result will test whether PH can win Malay votes with Bersatu’s help, which analysts say matters for cooperation at the 16th general election, due by February 2028.
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