Anwar’s long walk to power: the 2022 Malaysian general elections

Abstract

The 15th Malaysian General Elections (GE15), the first since the Covid pandemic lockdown, were supposed to bring back political stability, after three different prime ministers since 2018. The results were inconclusive with no single coalition winning the bare minimum to form a government. The King then asked Anwar Ibrahim to form a new government. The biggest surprise was the rise of Parti Islam Malaysia (PAS), which became the single largest party in Parliament. Another surprise was UMNO supporting Anwar to be prime minister. The role played by the King and the Malay rulers raised questions about the state of constitutional monarchy in Malaysia. PAS’s victory will have a profound impact on Malaysia’s reputation as a moderate Islamic country and will accelerate the trend towards Islamic identity politics.