Malaysia’s Anwar Gets Boost with Second Straight By-Election Win

(Bloomberg) -- Malaysia’s ruling coalition scored a landslide victory in a by-election on Saturday, with party leaders hailing it as a sign of long-term political stability and public acceptance of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government.

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Barisan Nasional, a key ally of Anwar, won 79% of the votes in a straight fight against the Perikatan Nasional opposition pact in Mahkota, a constituency in the southern state of Johor, according to the Election Commission. Its winning margin jumped four-fold compared to the last provincial vote, helped by a post-general-election tie-up with Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan alliance.

“This shows that supporters of the country’s main parties are able to accept the cooperation in the unity government,” Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, secretary-general of BN lynchpin the United Malays National Organisation, wrote on Facebook late Saturday. The former long-time rivals had joined forces in November 2022 to back Anwar after the general election resulted in a hung parliament.

Saturday’s result was the ruling pact’s second straight victory in provincial polls, and reaffirms Anwar’s grip on power after the country saw a revolving door of leaders between 2018 to 2022. It comes on the back of a strengthening currency and economy, an opposition in disarray, and as Malaysia unveiled plans to attract more investment into Johor state, which borders Singapore. The government is counting on the wins to help convince foreign investors that Anwar’s administration is in it for the long haul.

The victory in Mahkota doesn’t directly impact parliament’s composition — where Anwar enjoys a supermajority — but may embolden the prime minister to undertake politically sensitive reforms that could strengthen the country’s finances, including ending blanket petrol subsidies. Anwar, who doubles as finance minister, is set to unveil the government’s spending plan for 2025 on Oct. 18 with a view to reducing the fiscal deficit to 3% of gross domestic product in the medium term, from 5% last year.

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