Perikatan Nasional (PN)
Bersatu-PAS-led coalition formed amid the February 2020 Sheraton Move; led the federal government March 2020-August 2021, with PN component parties remaining in the governing bloc under PM Ismail Sabri (Aug 2021-Nov 2022) without PN itself holding power. Chaired by PAS's Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar since 22 February 2026, succeeding Muhyiddin Yassin, who resigned effective 1 January 2026.
membership is temporal
Who is in it
Currently: BERSATU, PAS, GERAKAN, MIPP, PEJUANG, WAWASAN.
Previously, and no longer: STAR, SAPP.
Party membership of a coalition changes over time. The dates behind this are the same ones the Coalition River on the home page is drawn from.
the account
Perikatan Nasional was formed amid the February 2020 political moves commonly called the Sheraton Move. Bersatu and a breakaway PKR group withdrew from Pakatan Harapan, after which PH lost parliamentary support. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong assessed that Muhyiddin Yassin commanded majority support and appointed him prime minister on 1 March 2020. The new government took the name Perikatan Nasional, built around two core parties — Bersatu and PAS — with backing from Barisan Nasional and Gabungan Parti Sarawak, though neither BN nor GPS joined PN as component parties. PN was formally registered with the Registrar of Societies on 7 August 2020.
PN governed federally for just under eighteen months, a period defined by the COVID-19 pandemic and mounting parliamentary instability. Muhyiddin resigned in August 2021 after UMNO withdrew its backing, and UMNO's Ismail Sabri Yaakob became prime minister at the head of a loose multi-coalition arrangement — BN, PN component parties, and East Malaysian allies — that lasted until the November 2022 general election. This period is a frequent source of public confusion: UMNO governed alongside PN under Ismail Sabri, but UMNO was never a PN member party at any point; the two remained separate, allied coalitions.
PN's coalition membership shifted over time. Gerakan joined in February 2021. In Sabah, a locally-organised bloc that included Sabah Bersatu operated under the PN banner from September 2020, but formally registered itself as the independent Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition in March 2022 and cut ties with PN entirely by December 2022, realigning with the federal unity government instead. STAR, a founding component at PN's 2020 registration, exited alongside this Sabah realignment. In 2024, PN gained its first Indian-based component, the Malaysian Indian People's Party (MIPP).
In the November 2022 general election, PN emerged as the second-largest bloc with 74 parliamentary seats, driven overwhelmingly by PAS's rural, Malay-Muslim electoral base (43 seats to Bersatu's 31 and Gerakan's zero). PN consolidated this in six state elections in 2023, retaining government in Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu and making sharp gains as opposition elsewhere, before much weaker showings in the state elections that followed: a single seat in Sabah in November 2025, none of the 33 seats it contested in Johor in July 2026, and seven of 36 in Negeri Sembilan in August 2026 — the last of these won in cooperation with Barisan Nasional rather than against it, with the two coalitions forming the state government together while Bersatu contested separately under its own logo and won nothing.
From late 2025, PN experienced leadership and membership disputes. Muhyiddin Yassin, PN's chairman since its founding, resigned effective 1 January 2026 amid reported infighting inside Bersatu and a dispute over the Perlis state government. PAS's Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar was named his successor on 22 February 2026. PAS ended political cooperation with Bersatu on 8 June. Wawasan became a PN component in July after the RoS-approved renaming of Parti Cinta Malaysia. Bersatu nevertheless contested separately under its own logo in the 1 August Negeri Sembilan election. Its status remains contested: Muhyiddin has pointed to the PN constitution's unanimous-removal requirement, while Hadi has said Bersatu is automatically out after pursuing a new coalition. This page records those competing readings without deciding between them.
Scholars and commentators commonly describe PN as a right-wing, Malay-Muslim nationalist coalition anchored in Ketuanan Melayu and Islamist politics, with PAS as its dominant ideological force — a characterisation attributed to named academic and journalistic sources rather than asserted as objective fact. PN's own 2020 formation remains politically contested territory in Malaysia: critics on the Pakatan Harapan side have called it a "backdoor government" that subverted the 2018 election mandate through defections rather than a fresh vote, while defenders point to the Agong's constitutional discretion and the statutory declarations that demonstrated Muhyiddin's majority support at the time.
the working
What the sources say
established
PN emerged from the political moves commonly called the "Sheraton Move". On 23 February 2020, Bersatu and a breakaway PKR faction withdrew from Pakatan Harapan; the subsequent loss of parliamentary support ended the PH government.
established
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong appointed Muhyiddin Yassin as Prime Minister; he was sworn in on 1 March 2020, forming a new governing bloc that took the name Perikatan Nasional.
established
The Perikatan Nasional name was already in public use by 29 February 2020, the day Muhyiddin was named Prime Minister, describing an informal grouping of Bersatu, PAS, and elements of Barisan Nasional and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) that backed his premiership. BN and GPS never became PN component parties: Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari stated at the time that "GPS is not a member of the Perikatan Nasional but only as a political entity in Sarawak that gives support to Tan Sri Muhyiddin". The precise "founding" date is contested — see below.
established
PN applied to the Registrar of Societies (RoS) for formal registration in August 2020; RoS confirmed approval effective 7 August 2020, under registration certificate PPM-019-14-07082020, as a political party under the Societies Act 1966. A May 2020 registration date appears in some accounts; August 2020 is the date reported consistently across independent outlets, and no source supporting May was found.
established
Bersatu and PAS are PN's two founding, continuously-affiliated component parties since the coalition's formation in February 2020, and were the two parties formally named when PN's registration was confirmed in August 2020.
established
Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR), a Sabah-based party, was among the parties formally listed at PN's August 2020 registration and remained affiliated until it announced its exit in December 2022, following Sabah's post-GE15 realignment.
established
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) was affiliated with PN from 2020 through 2024; exact join/exit months are not clearly established in available reporting.
established
Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan) formally joined PN on 11 February 2021, confirmed by then-PN chairman Muhyiddin Yassin.
established
The Malaysian Indian People's Party (MIPP), led by P. Punithan, applied to join PN in December 2023; the membership was formally approved and announced in April 2024, making MIPP PN's first Indian-based component party. Punithan was also named a PN deputy chairman.
established
Contemporaneous launch reporting described GRS in September 2020 as cooperation among PN, BN and PBS, while separately naming STAR among parties expected to cooperate. STAR should therefore be described as a PN component in that arrangement, not as a separately named founding bloc alongside PN, BN and PBS.
established
Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) was announced on 12 September 2020 by then-Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, uniting Perikatan Nasional, Barisan Nasional and Parti Bersatu Sabah under one Sabah coalition to contest the September 2020 Sabah state election.
established
GRS was formally registered as its own political coalition with the RoS in March 2022, with member parties Sabah Bersatu, PBS, STAR, and SAPP — a Sabah-only registration that did not include national PN parties such as PAS.
established
Following GE15, GRS joined the federal unity government on 25 November 2022. Sabah Bersatu members, including Hajiji, then formally exited Bersatu on 10 December 2022 while remaining under GRS.
established
GRS is therefore best described as never a fully national PN component coalition: it operated under the PN banner at state level in 2020, then formally separated in 2022 and has since aligned with the federal unity government.
established
UMNO did not join PN as a component party when PN was registered in 2020; UMNO said its support for the PN government came from its MPs and assemblymen, rather than from joining PN.
established
UMNO MPs and BN as a bloc backed the PN-led government under PM Muhyiddin (Mar 2020-Aug 2021) and then formed a joint governing arrangement with PN parties under PM Ismail Sabri (an UMNO MP, Aug 2021-Nov 2022), but this was a governing/confidence arrangement between separate coalitions (BN and PN), not membership. UMNO formally withdrew its backing from Muhyiddin on 8 July 2021, contributing to his resignation.
established
This distinction — PN and BN as allied-but-separate coalitions in 2020-2022, never merged — is a frequent point of public confusion.
established
Bersatu’s Disciplinary Board reportedly met on 12 February 2026 and the decision took effect on 13 February. The reported figure of 19 referred to Bersatu MPs whom Hamzah Zainudin said supported him, not a verified total of members disciplined; reports of disciplinary action gave differing counts and no complete primary list was located.
established
Muhyiddin Yassin served as PN chairman from the coalition's founding (dated variously 23-29 February 2020 depending on source) until his resignation, announced 30 December 2025, effective 1 January 2026. Reporting links the timing to escalating tensions within PN, including a dispute over the Perlis Menteri Besar's office in which PAS's Mohd Shukri Ramli was replaced by Bersatu's Abu Bakar Hamzah, angering PAS leaders.
established
Mohamed Azmin Ali resigned as PN secretary-general and Selangor PN liaison chief on the same day, effective 1 January 2026.
established
On 22 February 2026, PN's Supreme Council unanimously named Terengganu Menteri Besar and PAS vice-president Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar as the new PN chairman, on a nomination by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang; Muhyiddin was named deputy chairman.
established
Takiyuddin Hassan (PAS) was named PN secretary-general at the coalition's supreme council meeting of 14 March 2026, succeeding Azmin Ali, who had resigned the post effective 1 January 2026 and was named deputy secretary-general in the same reshuffle.
PN did not exist; not applicable.
established
2020-2021 government:PN, with BN and GPS support, governed federally under PM Muhyiddin Yassin from 1 March 2020 to 16 August 2021. Muhyiddin said he had lost majority support when he resigned.
established
GE15 (19 November 2022):PN won a total of 74 parliamentary seats out of 222, becoming the second-largest bloc after Pakatan Harapan (82 seats). Breakdown: PAS 43 seats, Bersatu 31 seats, Gerakan 0 seats (Gerakan's zero follows arithmetically from the 43 + 31 = 74 breakdown rather than being stated directly). Published party splits differ slightly — some accounts give PAS 42 — depending on whether post-election defections are counted; the 74-seat total is the figure reported consistently.
established
2023 state elections (six states, August 2023):PN retained government in Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu, and made significant gains as opposition in Penang, Selangor, and Negeri Sembilan (won 22 of 56 seats in Selangor, for example), while Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional unity coalitions retained government in those three states.
ISEAS Perspective 2023/52; Fulcrum "Malaysia's 2023 State Elections"; Borneo Post, "In 2023, GE15's political battle and Perikatan's rise continued"
established
2025 Sabah state election (29 November 2025):PN won 1 seat, via a PAS candidate. GRS (29 seats) and Warisan (25 seats) led the results; Barisan Nasional won 6, STAR won 2.
established
2026 Johor state election (11 July 2026):PN contested 33 of Johor's 56 state seats — Bersatu 16, PAS 11, MIPP 5, Pejuang 1 — and won none. PAS and Bersatu campaigned separately after PAS ended its electoral cooperation with Bersatu on 8 June 2026, and PAS instructed its members and supporters to vote Barisan Nasional in areas where PN was not contesting.
established
2026 Negeri Sembilan state election (1 August 2026):PN contested alongside Barisan Nasional rather than against it. BN won 18 of the 36 state seats and PN 7 (PAS 4, Parti Wawasan Negara 3), and the two coalitions formed the state government together. Bersatu contested separately under its own party logo, fielding candidates in 24 seats and winning none.
established
Multiple scholars and outlets characterise PN's overall political position as right-wing to national-conservative, built around Ketuanan Melayu (Malay political primacy) and Islamism, with PAS described as the coalition's dominant ideological driver.
established
PN itself has not published a single unified ideological manifesto separate from its component parties' own platforms; Bersatu presents itself as a Malay-nationalist but avowedly multiracial party, while PAS presents itself as an Islamist party seeking governance based on Islamic principles.
contested
Opposition figures, most prominently Anwar Ibrahim and other PH leaders, labelled the 2020 formation of the Muhyiddin government a "backdoor government," arguing it circumvented the 2018 election mandate through MP defections rather than a fresh vote.
Malaysiakini, MalaysiaNow reporting on the "backdoor govt" framing; Asia Times, "The duo who stole Malaysia's democracy"
contested
Defenders of the transition, including then-Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, characterised the process as constitutionally valid, resting on the Agong's discretionary power to appoint a PM commanding majority support as demonstrated via MPs' statutory declarations.
established
An academic survey cited in a 2023 Cogent Social Sciences article reported that 60.6% of a sample of Malaysian political science graduates viewed the power transition negatively; this is a single study's finding, not a national poll, and is reported here as such.
where accounts differ
The parts nobody agrees on
Founding date:
contested
Sources vary on the precise date PN was "founded" as opposed to registered — 23 February 2020 (date of the Sheraton Move), 29 February 2020 (the day Muhyiddin was named Prime Minister, by which point the PN name was already in press use), and 1 March 2020 (Muhyiddin's swearing-in) are all used in different contexts by different sources. Registration with RoS (7 August 2020) is the one date on which independent reporting agrees.
MIC's status, March-May 2026:
contested
PN secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan announced on 17 March 2026 that MIC had been accepted as a PN component. MIC deputy president M. Saravanan denied that MIC had made a formal application and said it remained in BN. On 18 May, Takiyuddin said PN's decision to accept MIC was void because MIC had not confirmed its position.
2025-2026 Bersatu-PN tensions:
contested
Multiple, partially conflicting threads of reporting describe a rupture inside Bersatu and between Bersatu and PAS through early-to-mid 2026: - A power struggle between a Muhyiddin-aligned camp and a Hamzah Zainudin/Azmin Ali-aligned camp inside Bersatu is reported as a major driver of Muhyiddin's PN chairmanship resignation (effective 1 Jan 2026). - In February 2026, Bersatu's disciplinary board reportedly sacked or suspended around 19 Bersatu MPs aligned with Hamzah Zainudin, leaving a much-reduced Bersatu rump; Hamzah was expelled from Bersatu, reportedly over unauthorised contacts with UMNO. - On 8 June 2026, PAS formally ended political cooperation with Bersatu. — - Wawasan became a PN component under its new name effective 6 July 2026, after RoS approved Parti Cinta Malaysia's name change. — - Bersatu's continuing PN status is disputed. On 17 July, Muhyiddin said Bersatu would form a new coalition with IPR parties including Putra and Urimai; on 25 July he said that PN's constitution required unanimous agreement of all component parties to remove a member. PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang subsequently said on 7 August that Bersatu was "automatically out" of PN. These are competing readings; this page does not adjudicate between them.
Exact join/exit months for STAR and SAPP
uncertain
are not consistently dated across available sources; year-level facts are established, month-level facts are not.
uncertain
No current PN Dewan Rakyat seat count can be presented as confirmed without a member-by-member affiliation register. PN won 74 seats at GE15, but that historic result is not the current parliamentary composition.
still being researched
- Is Bersatu still, in a formal/constitutional sense, a PN component party as of the research date, given the June 2026 PAS split and Wawasan's rise? Needs a primary PN Supreme Council statement or RoS filing, not just press commentary.
- What complete primary list of Bersatu members disciplined in February 2026, including their names and sanctions, was issued by the party’s disciplinary board?
- Exact join and exit months for STAR and SAPP's PN affiliation (currently year-level only).