KUALA LUMPUR - Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling coalition retained both its seats in Johor’s by-elections on Saturday.

Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidates won both the Simpang Jeram state assembly seat and the Pulai parliamentary ward.

The two seats became vacant after incumbent Salahuddin Ayub died on July 23. He had secured significant majorities in both federal and state elections.

PH notched the double wins despite a raging controversy in Malaysia following a contentious court decision on Monday to dismiss 47 graft charges against Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi. The Barisan Nasional (BN) chief is Datuk Seri Anwar’s ally in his 10-month-old unity government.

There were some expectations that the Simpang Jeram ward in north-west Johor would be wrested from PH by the opposition after the surprise decision in court.

But PH’s Nazri Abdul Rahman polled 13,844 votes, edging out his rival, Dr Mohd Mazri Yahya of Perikatan Nasional (PN), who received 10,330 votes. Independent candidate S. Jeganathan scraped together just 311 votes in the three-way fight.

PH had been more confident of a Pulai win, as the late Datuk Seri Salahuddin had secured a 51 per cent margin over his next best-performing opponent in the 2020 election. However, that margin slipped to about 39 per cent this time.

Its candidate, Mr Suhaizan Kaiat, won with 48,283 votes, followed by PN’s Zulkifli Jaafar with 29,642. The third candidate, independent Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi, polled 528 votes.

Mr Amir Fareed Rahim, strategy director from political risk consultancy KRA Group said the victory by the PH-BN alliance is a validation of the appeal and legacy of the late Mr Salahuddin, who was known for his anti-inflation Rahmah Menu initiative for the lower-income group.

PH-BN’s success in both seats is also a validation of the Johorean voters’ support for the state government led by Umno Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi, who is seen to be responsive in solving people’s issues, such as congestion at the Johor checkpoint, Mr Amir said.

More importantly, it “underscores that the ‘green wave’ momentum has not fully reached the southern peninsula, even though Johor is Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s home state and Bersatu’s mainstay even at its weakest,” Mr Amir told The Straits Times.

Mr Muhyiddin is president of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, one of the two top members of the PN coalition, the other being fundamentalist Parti Islam SeMalaysia. A wave of Malay-Muslim voters for PN had swept aside Umno-led BN in the November 2022 General Election and in the recent August 2023 polls in three northern states.

The results would also suggest that the court’s decision to drop charges against Mr Zahid has not severely damaged PH’s support levels, at least in these two constituencies.

“The victory will shore up the political authority of the PM and put the unity government on a more stable footing post the August state elections,” added Mr Amir.

Dr Mazlan Ali, senior lecturer at the Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, said: “The cooperation between Umno and PH will be stronger now, as the wins show that their alliance is effective and has good results. These will stabilise the government and weaken pressure from PN.”

The results also augur well for the PH-BN alliance in an upcoming by-election in Pahang in October, he added.

Before the by-elections, the Johor state assembly was controlled by PH and BN, which held a collective 51 seats, while the opposition parties held only four wards. The score is once again 52-4.

BN and PH won 23 out of 26 parliamentary seats in Johor during the last general elections.

In the 222-seat federal Parliament, the passing of Mr Salahuddin meant Mr Anwar’s unity government lost its two-thirds majority by just one seat.

The win in Pulai means that PH, BN and their allies again control 148 seats. The remaining 74 seats in the Lower House are held by PN.

For Mr Anwar, commanding the two-thirds majority makes it easier for him to pass legislation, including amending the Constitution and redefining electoral boundaries.

In the 2022 General Election in Pulai, the late Mr Salahuddin obtained 64,900 votes – with a huge 33,174 majority – against a candidate from BN who received 31,726 votes, and a PN candidate who polled 20,677 votes.

In the Johor state polls held in March 2022, Mr Salahuddin won in Simpang Jeram with a smaller margin of 2,399 votes – getting a total of 8,749, against a PN candidate’s 6,350.

The next general election is due in 2027.