INTRODUCTION

In the 2022 general election and the 2023 state elections, Perikatan Nasional (PN) swept across Kelantan, Kedah, and Terengganu and made inroads into states long held by Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH), such as Pahang, Penang and Selangor. In the 2023 state elections, PN won 146 of 165 Malay-majority seats (90 per cent) that were up for contest. The force of PN's “green wave” was felt the most in Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) strongholds in the north and northeast regions of peninsular Malaysia or the so-called Malay heartlands, where Malays comprise more than 75 per cent of the population. PN won fourteen of fifteen parliamentary seats and thirty-three of thirty-six state seats in Kedah; three of three parliamentary seats and fourteen of fifteen state seats in Perlis; fourteen of fourteen parliamentary seats and forty-three of forty-five state seats in Kelantan, and; eight of eight parliamentary seats and thirty-two of thirty-two state seats in Terengganu.

PAS has governed Kelantan and Terengganu on and off since 1959. The two states share many commonalities such as being homogeneously Malay, predominantly rural, deeply conservative, and steeped in Islamic learning traditions. But unlike Kelantan, where PAS has been in power continuously since 1990, Terengganu's political fortune has repeatedly changed hands between BN and PAS over the past decades. This means that the political dynamic in Terengganu is more competitive than in Kelantan, especially after 2008 when even Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidates managed to win seats in Terengganu as part of the then-Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition with PAS. However, the tide turned in PAS's favour in the 2018 state election when it regained control of the Terengganu state government from BN by winning twenty of thirty-two seats in the state assembly. In the 2023 state election, Terengganu voters returned the PAS-led state government to power with an even stronger mandate when PN won all thirty-two state seats. For now, it looks like PAS is firmly ensconced in Terengganu, bringing the state politically closer to Kelantan.