6 coalitions of Malaysia
Malaysian governments are built by coalitions, not by single parties. No party has ever won a federal majority on its own, so parties group into alliances that allocate seats among themselves rather than competing, and whichever alliance commands a majority in the Dewan Rakyat forms the government. Two of the coalitions below contest only in Sabah or Sarawak, where the politics of state autonomy has produced its own party system. Open any coalition for its history, member parties, and elected representatives.
BNBarisan NasionalBarisan Nasional (the National Front) is Malaysia's oldest surviving political coalition. It was registered in 1973 as the successor to the Alliance Party, the UMNO-MCA-MIC pact that had governed since independence in 1957, and it broadened that arrangement by bringing in former opposition parties after the 1969 general election.
Formed 1974
GPSGabungan Parti SarawakGabungan Parti Sarawak (the Sarawak Parties Alliance) is a coalition that contests elections only in Sarawak, the larger of Malaysia's two Borneo states.
Formed 2018
GRSGabungan Rakyat SabahGabungan Rakyat Sabah (the Sabah People's Alliance) is a state-based coalition contesting elections in Sabah, formed in 2020 ahead of that year's state election.
Formed 2020
GTAGerakan Tanah AirGerakan Tanah Air (the Homeland Movement) was formed in 2022 by Mahathir Mohamad, twice prime minister of Malaysia, as a vehicle for the 2022 general election.
Formed 2022
PHPakatan HarapanPakatan Harapan (the Alliance of Hope) is a reformist coalition formed in 2015 out of the earlier Pakatan Rakyat pact, bringing together the multiracial People's Justice Party (PKR), the predominantly urban Democratic Action Party (DAP), and the National Trust Party (AMANAH), which had broken away from PAS.
Formed 2015
PNPerikatan NasionalPerikatan Nasional (the National Alliance) was formed in 2020 in the aftermath of the Sheraton Move, the defection of legislators that brought down the sitting Pakatan Harapan government mid-term and installed Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister.
Formed 2020