The 15th Penang state election was held on 12 August 2023 to elect the State Assembly members of the 15th Penang State Legislative Assembly, the legislature of the Malaysian state of Penang.
Penang is one of the states which did not dissolve simultaneously with Dewan Rakyat on 10 October 2022. It was decided by Pakatan Harapan on 15 October 2022.[1]
The Barisan Nasional (BN) – Pakatan Harapan (PH) electoral pact won 29 of 40 seats, with PH winning a standalone majority of 27 seats and BN winning 2 seats. The Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition won the remaining 11 seats to become the main opposition in the state assembly.
Background
Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan + Barisan Nasional is the main coalition in this state election, photo taken at Jalan Raja Uda, ButterworthTun Lim Chong Eu highway Sungai Pinang intersection during campaign period
In the 2018 general election, Pakatan Harapan won the state of Penang, winning 37 out of the 40 state seats. Despite the Sheraton Move occurring in the beginning of 2020, the various changes during the 2020 - 2022 Malaysian political crisis did not affect the politics at the state level, allowing the Pakatan Harapan state government to continue to govern.
On 6 August 2020, the Chief Minister of Penang, Chow Kon Yeow, reiterated his stance that all states that have a Pakatan Harapan government, including Penang, would not dissolve the state assemblies in order to coincide with a snap general election. This was because at the time, the Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan state governments had a stable majority. The Pakatan Harapan leadership further emphasised that there would not be a dissolution of assembly in 2021 and 2022, citing various factors, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the need for the state governments to complete a full term, and the possibility of various factors which might inconvenience people should the state elections be called at the wrong time, such as floods, ahead of the 2022 Malaysian general election.[2]
On 10 October 2022, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob dissolved Parliament, resulting in a snap general election being held in Malaysia on 19 November 2022. Traditionally, every state in Malaysia except Sarawak would hold their state elections concurrently with the general election for the sake of convenience, but since 2020, several Malaysian states held state elections separately from the general election, with Sabah on 26 September 2020, Malacca on 20 November 2021, Sarawak on 18 December 2021 and Johor on 12 March 2022. With the exception of Perlis, Perak and Pahang holding state elections during the 2022 Malaysian general election, all other states, including Penang, will hold their state elections in 2023.
^New coalition formed in 2020. These numbers are the total seats and vote share of BERSATU, PAS and GERAKAN in the last election. The parties were previously part of Pakatan Harapan, Gagasan Sejahtera and Barisan Nasional.
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