Mahathir and PAS demand Malay unity in Malaysia’s Johor poll

Malaysia’s Johor-election" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="156180" data-entity-type="event">Johor election has opened a new front in the country’s long-running racial politics, after former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and Islamist party PAS urged voters to put “Malay-Muslim political power” ahead of party loyalty in one of the country’s most closely watched state polls.The southern state, which borders Singapore and sits at the centre of Malaysia’s cross-border growth plans, is also a stronghold for the United Malays National Organisation.The Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that Umno leads holds 40 of the state’s 56 seats after a landslide victory in 2022. Yet this time the terrain is less certain. BN is battling Pakatan Harapan (PH) in every seat despite sharing power with it in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s federal unity government, while Perikatan Nasional (PN) is contesting just 33.