【Johor State Election】BN Sweeps 48 Seats, Strongly Takes Control of Johor – PH Retains Only 8 Seats, PN Wiped Out

(Johor, 12th) Aiming to expand its governing advantage, Barisan Nasional (BN) captured 48 seats in the 16th Johor state election, firmly holding the state government with an overwhelming majority.

In this state election, BN’s three main component parties achieved great success. UMNO won 36 of the 37 seats it contested; MCA exceeded its target of 'defending 4, contesting 4' by winning 8 of the 15 seats it contested; MIC achieved a perfect record, winning all 4 seats it ran for.

Meanwhile, Pakatan Harapan (PH), which won 12 seats in the previous state election, failed to make a breakthrough in this round, only managing to hold onto 6 seats through the Democratic Action Party (DAP), while the People’s Justice Party (PKR) and Amanah each won 1 seat.

As of 11pm, the Election Commission’s counting was still ongoing. However, BN chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid and PH vice chairman Datuk Seri Amiruddin had both issued victory and concession statements, respectively.

The Johor state election is the second to be held after the 2022 general election. It is regarded as a key battle between BN and PH under the unity government framework and is also seen as another test for the PH-led unity government following last year’s Sabah state election.

Although the voter turnout had reached 67.44% as of 5 pm—far surpassing the previous turnout of 54.92%—the Election Commission’s announcement showed the three constituencies with the lowest turnout were Pakatan Harapan DAP’s incumbent seats of Perling (60.6%) and Stulang (60.5%), as well as BN MCA’s incumbent seat of Bekok (58.9%).

The top three highest turnouts were all traditional UMNO strongholds: Bukit Batu (77.2%), Semarang (76.8%), and Seri Medan (74.3%).

Perikatan Nasional (PN), which won only 3 seats in the last state election launched a more focused campaign this time, contesting 33 selected seats but was completely wiped out.

The newly formed MUDA party, seen as splitting PH’s votes, failed to win any of the 15 seats it contested, and the Pejuang party, which contested 4 seats, was unable to retain its previously sole seat.

In the previous election, Pejuang only contested Bukit Batu, which became a five-way race this time. Former Education Minister Maszlee Malik, regarded as PH’s “Mentri Besar candidate,” narrowly won in this contest.

As for Amanah, it managed to hold on to the Senggarang seat by only 170 votes. This was also the only seat that UMNO lost out of the 37 it contested.

This state election saw a total of 172 candidates vying for 56 seats, with 3 seats seeing five-cornered fights, 12 in four-cornered contests, 27 in three-cornered races, and 14 in direct face-offs.

Parties labeled as the “progressive bloc”—such as the Socialist Party, the Indigenous Peoples Party, and 6 independent candidates—failed to win any seats and only accompanied the race throughout.