KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will be shifting his electoral base to contest next month’s general election in the northern Perak state, he announced on Thursday night.
Datuk Seri Anwar, who was the MP for Port Dickson ward in Negeri Sembilan before Parliament was dissolved, will be contesting the parliamentary seat of Tambun in Perak.
This shows his coalition Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) ambition to reclaim Perak, which is set to be a crucial swing state for the Nov 19 general election.
Mr Anwar - who is Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president - announced his candidacy for Tambun during PH’s national convention, which took place in Perak on Thursday, just hours after the Election Commission announced the dates for Malaysia’s 15th general election.
“I am not choosing a safe seat with a huge majority. I am brave to go and contest in Tambun. Perak will be the frontline for our struggle in this election,” Mr Anwar said while addressing a crowd of over 7,000 at the convention.
This is the second consecutive election where Mr Anwar has shifted seats. He won his long-held Permatang Pauh parliamentary ward in Penang at the 2013 elections, but opted to contest in Port Dickson in 2019 to re-enter Parliament after being pardoned and released from prison in 2018 when he was serving time for sodomy.
Mr Anwar’s latest decision underlines the crucial role Perak is set to play in the upcoming polls. It is one of only three states that will conduct simultaneous state legislative elections, and holds 10 per cent of all Parliamentary seats on offer in Malaysia.
PH, and its previous iteration Pakatan Rakyat, won the Perak legislative elections in 2008 and 2018 respectively, but they were unable to serve out full terms as their state administrations collapsed due to defections.
Tambun is a relatively new stronghold for PH, having won the seat for the first time in 2018, ending over three decades of dominance there for Barisan Nasional (BN). However, the 2018 victory was scored by Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) deputy chief Ahmad Faizal Azumu, who won on a PH ticket but subsequently defected from the coalition along with his party.
Mr Anwar is widely expected to contest against former ally Datuk Seri Faizal - who is the former Perak Menteri Besar and currently an outgoing federal minister.
Mr Anwar had previously said that he may contest the upcoming polls in a seat currently held by “traitors”, in a reference to scores of MPs who defected from PH and collapsed the PH federal administration in 2020.
Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who pushed for Malaysia to hold its elections this year despite polls not being due until next year, is also expected to contest in Perak - defending his long-held Bagan Datuk parliamentary seat.
With 2.5 million residents, Perak’s racial composition closely mirrors national averages, making it a bellwether state for the elections.
BowerGroup Asia director Adib Zalkapli said that Mr Anwar’s move was designed to create more safe seats for his party and his coalition, mirroring moves previously made by PH component Democratic Action Party (DAP), who sent several senior party leaders to Johor in 2013, which helped PH win the state for the first time in 2018.
“What Anwar is doing is trying to create a new safe seat for PH in a crucial state,” Mr Adib told The Straits Times. Perak has the fourth largest number of Parliament seats up for contest this election, after Sarawak, Sabah and Johor.
PH on Thursday also named Anwar as their Prime Minister candidate should they emerge as winners in the election.
The coalition also said that they had completed seat negotiations among all four of its components - PKR, DAP, Parti Amanah Negara, and United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko).
