Malacca polls: PN willing to forgo bigger gains for BN pact
Published: Aug 21, 2026 3:37 PM
Updated: 6:04 PM
Perikatan Nasional could win more seats than BN in the upcoming Malacca polls but is willing to forgo a potential victory in favour of an electoral pact, said PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.
He said PN was prepared to do this in the name of unity “among Malay Muslims and with non-Malays who are not extreme”.
Hadi, whose party leads PN, based his assessment on voting trends in the 2021 Malacca state election and the 2022 general election, which included the state’s parliamentary seats.
“Looking at the 2022 results and the 2021 results shows that there were different waves. A younger wave occurred during the parliamentary election,” he told reporters when met in Marang, Terengganu, today.
Based on GE15 results, Hadi said if the 2022 voting trend continued in the state election, Umno, BN’s linchpin party, would win only four seats.
“We (PN) would win much more. But we don’t want that. We want Malay-Muslim unity and unity with non-Malays who are not extreme,” he said.
Malacca state legislative assembly
Although Hadi did not cite a specific study, his assessment is similar to a Malaysiakini analysis published on Aug 12.
Although Hadi did not cite a specific study, his assessment is similar to a Malaysiakini analysis published on Aug 12.
The analysis found that PN and BN had almost identical vote shares in GE15, at 30.9 percent and 29.6 percent respectively.
If those voting patterns were translated to a state election, PN would have won 10 of Malacca’s 28 state seats, while BN would have taken just four under the first-past-the-post system.
Pakatan Harapan would have won the remaining 14 seats.
If those voting patterns were translated to a state election, PN would have won 10 of Malacca’s 28 state seats, while BN would have taken just four under the first-past-the-post system.
Pakatan Harapan would have won the remaining 14 seats.
Most in BN want PN cooperation
BN has said it will contest 21 of the 28 seats in Malacca but remains open to discussions with other parties, without specifying which ones.
Besides PN, Harapan has also indicated interest in working with BN in the state election.
Asked whether he was confident BN would choose to work with PN, Hadi said: “God willing, if Johor was more complicated, Malacca is easier.”
He claimed there was strong support within BN, particularly among Umno members, for a PN-BN pact, citing experiences in Negeri Sembilan and Johor.
“In BN, they are divided (in terms of working with PN), although a majority of them agree to it, such as the youth chief and their grassroots members. The results in Negeri Sembilan and Johor show a positive response,” he said.
In both state elections, PN and BN supporters were willing to vote for each other where their parties did not contest against one another. A majority of BN supporters also voted for PN rather than Harapan candidates.
This occurred despite BN and Harapan being partners in the federal government, while PN remains in the opposition.
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