GE15 hung parliament and unity government
Five days of deadlock; the Agong's role; PH-BN-GPS-GRS government.
what happened
You went to sleep on 19 November 2022 not knowing who your Prime Minister would be. You woke up the next morning, and the results were in — but they still didn't tell you. It took another five days.
The election had been decisive in one sense: 221 of the 222 parliamentary seats had been won and lost, cleanly, results in hand by the next morning. What it hadn't produced was a government. Pakatan Harapan had won the most seats — 82 — but that left them 30 short of the 112 needed to govern. Perikatan Nasional had 73. Barisan Nasional, Malaysia's governing coalition for six decades, had won 30 seats — not enough to lead, but, together with the East Malaysian coalitions GPS (23 seats) and GRS (6), enough to decide who did. For the first time in the country's history, nobody had won outright, and the Constitution's answer to "then what?" — the Agong judging who could command the confidence of a majority of MPs — was about to play out almost entirely in public.
What followed was five days of negotiation conducted, unusually, in the open. The palace asked for proof of majority support by 2pm on Monday; nobody met it, and the Agong extended the deadline by a day, to 2pm on Tuesday. Muhyiddin Yassin said PN had submitted declarations showing the support of 115 parties and MPs and that he did not know why the palace had found that insufficient; when the Agong suggested he and Anwar Ibrahim govern together, he declined, giving as his reason that PN's settled position, from the start, was that it would not work with Pakatan Harapan. GPS, holding one of the two decisive East Malaysian blocs, announced on Sunday — the day after polling — that it was backing Muhyiddin, and then on Thursday announced its support for Anwar instead, saying it wished to comply with the Agong's decree. Inside Barisan Nasional, the chairman, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, told the palace that all 30 of the coalition's MPs backed Anwar; MCA's secretary-general publicly disputed that this was BN's decision, saying the Supreme Council had resolved to back nobody, and called for Zahid's replacement. On Wednesday the Agong summoned all 30 BN MPs to the palace in person. By Thursday BN had a stated collective position, announced by UMNO secretary-general Ahmad Maslan: it would join a unity government so long as that government was not led by Perikatan Nasional, and it would abide by whatever the Agong decreed.
Then, on the fifth day, the Agong did something the Constitution does not require: he convened a special meeting of the Conference of Rulers to hear the other Malay Rulers' views. It changed nothing about who legally decided — the appointment was his alone. The Star reported that he sought the Rulers' views on the impasse; no palace statement explaining his reasons for consulting them has been located, and this page does not attribute a motive to him. Hours later, Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as Malaysia's 10th Prime Minister. Muhyiddin did not concede, calling on Anwar to produce the statutory declarations proving his majority, and the following day confirmed that PN had turned down Anwar's offer to join the government and would sit as the opposition. Anwar, rather than resting on his appointment, told Parliament he would put the question to the House. On 19 December a motion of confidence in him was passed by voice vote, the Speaker ruling that "more voices have agreed." No division was called, so the House never recorded a numerical tally — meaning the size of Anwar's majority was settled politically rather than counted, and Muhyiddin's competing claim about the numbers was never tested on the floor.
What makes this episode worth remembering isn't just that it was tense — it's who ended up governing together. Barisan Nasional, and UMNO within it, had spent much of Anwar Ibrahim's political life on the opposite side of a personal rivalry: UMNO led the government that sacked him from the Cabinet and had him arrested in 1998, prosecuted him, and imprisoned him for six years following his 1999 corruption conviction and his 2000 sodomy conviction, and it was the government he spent two decades trying to unseat. Within a fortnight of GE15, UMNO MPs were in Anwar's Cabinet, serving under him. That outcome wasn't written anywhere in the Constitution — it was produced by the public, five-day bargaining process you just read about, arbitrated by the one institution the Constitution does assign the appointment to: the Agong, whose task under Article 43(2)(a) is to judge which MP is likely to command the confidence of the majority, not to choose a Prime Minister at will.
the working
What the sources say
established
Malaysia's 15th General Election (GE15) was held on 19 November 2022. Polling took place in 221 of the country's 222 parliamentary constituencies: the Padang Serai (Kedah) poll was postponed after the death of Pakatan Harapan candidate M. Karupaiya, and was held on 7 December 2022. One state seat, Tioman in Pahang, was postponed on the same basis after the death of Perikatan Nasional candidate Md Yunus Ramli, and also polled on 7 December.
established
On the morning of 20 November 2022, with 221 of the 222 parliamentary seats decided, the standings were: Pakatan Harapan (PH) 82; Perikatan Nasional (PN) 73; Barisan Nasional (BN) 30; Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) 23; Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) 6; Warisan 3; Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) 1; Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) 1; and 2 independents. No coalition reached the 112-seat threshold needed to govern alone. These are the numbers on which the entire five-day negotiation described below took place.
established
The 222nd seat, Padang Serai, was won on 7 December 2022 by PN's Azman Nasrudin — thirteen days after Anwar's appointment as Prime Minister, and four days after his Cabinet was sworn in — bringing PN's total to 74. The full GE15 tally across all 222 seats was therefore PH 82, PN 74, BN 30, GPS 23, GRS 6, Warisan 3, PBM 1, KDM 1 and 2 independents. Where other sources give PN 74 for the November events, they are applying this post-7-December total retrospectively.
established
With no majority bloc, the Istana Negara (via the Comptroller of the Royal Household) asked coalition and party leaders to submit, by 2pm on Monday 21 November 2022, proof of majority support (statutory declarations/letters) together with the name of their proposed Prime Minister, addressed to the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat.
established
That 2pm Monday deadline was not met; the Agong extended it, at the request of political leaders, to 2pm on Tuesday 22 November 2022.
established
On 22 November 2022, after reviewing the submitted declarations, the Comptroller of the Royal Household, Datuk Seri Ahmad Fadil Shamsu, stated that no MP had been shown to command the support of a simple majority of the Dewan Rakyat, and that the Agong had decreed an audience with the leaders of Pakatan Harapan (Anwar Ibrahim) and Perikatan Nasional (Muhyiddin Yassin) at 4.30pm that day.
established
At that 22 November audience, the Agong encouraged Anwar and Muhyiddin to explore forming a unity government together. Muhyiddin publicly declined this proposal and maintained that PN — not PH — held majority support.
established
Muhyiddin gave his own account of that audience the same evening, at a press conference outside his residence. On the unity-government proposal he said: "Tuanku suggested that we cooperate with PH to form a unity government, but we have discussed since the beginning, we will not work with PH," adding, "that is our party's position, from then until now. We did not agree." On the numbers, he said PN had submitted to Istana Negara statutory declarations showing the support of 115 parties and MPs, said these had been handed to the Royal Private Secretary Nazim Mohd Alim, and, holding up documents, said: "But when I had the audience earlier, someone said that this is not enough, I don't know what the reasons are behind that, but the proof is here."
established
The Agong separately urged BN and GPS — whose combined 53 seats were not individually enough to reach 112 but were decisive as a swing bloc — to declare which of PH or PN they would support in government formation.
Stratsea, as above
established
On 20 November 2022, Sarawak Premier and GPS chairman Abang Johari Openg announced that GPS had agreed to form a coalition federal government together with Perikatan Nasional, Barisan Nasional, and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, and that GPS would support Muhyiddin Yassin as the 10th Prime Minister.
established
On 24 November 2022, GPS reversed that position and declared its support for Anwar Ibrahim's coalition government instead, with Abang Johari stating GPS wished to comply with the Agong's decree in accordance with the Federal Constitution.
established
BN's own position was contested internally. BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi held meetings with Pakatan Harapan leaders and, on or around 22–23 November, sent a letter to the Istana Negara stating that BN's 30 MPs were backing Anwar Ibrahim as Prime Minister.
established
This move was contested within BN's own leadership. The BN Supreme Council had met twice on 21 November 2022 without reaching a decision on whether to back PH or PN; MCA president Wee Ka Siong said publicly after that meeting that any decision to work with PH required the approval of the Supreme Council. On 23 November, MCA secretary-general Chong Sin Woon said the letter's contents were "out of line with the decision made by the coalition's supreme council," which had resolved that "Barisan would not support anyone as the prime minister at this moment," and called for Zahid to be replaced as BN chairman by his deputy, Mohamad Hasan. MalaysiaNow reported that in the letter Zahid committed BN's 30 MPs to Anwar "based on his 'mandate' as the BN chairman," and that BN MPs disputed at a late-night meeting that he had that mandate.
uncertain
A widely repeated detail — that Mohamad Hasan and Hishammuddin Hussein specifically declined to sign a pledge giving Zahid a mandate to commit BN's MPs — traces to a single November 2022 report (The Edge) whose copy is no longer retrievable at any URL the KB can verify. It is not carried by the sources cited above, and this page therefore does not state it.
established
BN's position was stated publicly on 24 November 2022 by UMNO secretary-general Ahmad Maslan, who said the party's supreme council had decided unanimously to "support and take part in a unity government that is not led by PN to ensure the formation of a stable and prosperous government," and that BN's elected representatives would comply with whatever government formation the Agong decreed.
established
On 23 November 2022, the Agong summoned all 30 BN Members of Parliament, together with BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and deputy chairman Mohamad Hasan, to Istana Negara.
established
On 24 November 2022 the Agong convened a special meeting of the Conference of Rulers (Majlis Raja-Raja) at Istana Negara — reported by The Star as most of the Malay Rulers gathering from around 9.40am, with the palace gate closed at roughly 11am — at which he sought the Rulers' views on the ongoing impasse in forming a federal government. This meeting was consultative; the decision to appoint a Prime Minister under Articles 40(2)(a) and 43(2)(a) remained the Agong's alone (see [] for the constitutional detail).
established
Following that meeting, the Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah, appointed Anwar Ibrahim as Malaysia's 10th Prime Minister. Anwar took his oath of office before the Agong at Istana Negara at 5.06pm on 24 November 2022 — five days after polling.
established
Muhyiddin Yassin did not concede immediately after Anwar's appointment was announced, and publicly called on Anwar to produce statutory declarations proving his claimed majority.
established
The same day, Anwar announced he would convene Parliament and put himself to a vote of confidence on 19 December 2022.
established
On 25 November 2022 Muhyiddin, as PN chairman, confirmed that PN had declined Anwar's offer to join the unity government and would remain an opposition bloc, and thanked Anwar for the offer.
established
Anwar's full Cabinet — a unity government drawing on PH, BN, GPS, GRS and others — was announced on 2 December 2022 and sworn in on 3 December 2022, more than a week after Anwar's own appointment as PM.
established
On 19 December 2022, the first day of the 15th Parliament's sitting, a motion of confidence in Anwar as Prime Minister — tabled by Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof — was passed in the Dewan Rakyat by voice vote; the opposition did not call for a formal bloc/division vote. Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Johari Abdul, presiding, ruled the motion passed on the basis that "more voices have agreed."
where accounts differ
The parts nobody agrees on
contested
In 2024, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said that 10 MPs had signed two statutory declarations, one for PN and one for BN; Anwar Ibrahim cited those overlapping declarations in disputing the claimed 115 declarations for Muhyiddin. This is a political explanation reported by the speakers, not a published Palace audit of every declaration.
uncertain
No individual Ruler’s public statement on the substantive appointment decision after the 24 November 2022 meeting has been located; reporting establishes that eight Rulers held a special discussion, which should not be described as a formal vote to appoint the Prime Minister.
What Muhyiddin's competing statutory-declaration claim actually represented
contested
Muhyiddin said publicly on 22 November 2022 that PN had submitted to Istana Negara statutory declarations showing the support of 115 parties and MPs, and said he did not know the reasons why this had been treated as insufficient. The Istana Negara's own 22 November statement said its review found no MP had been shown to command a simple majority. Both statements were made the same day and neither has been withdrawn. Years later, in 2024, Muhyiddin submitted to police what were described as 114 additional SDs (115 including his own) backing him as PM in November 2022 — a figure a subsequent report (Lau, 2024) described as "true and correct" in terms of the documents existing, though this does not resolve whether those declarations, at the time, actually represented 112+ MPs who had not also signed conflicting declarations for the other side, or how the palace's own verification process reached its contrary conclusion.
Reported palace preferences
alleged
Some commentary and retrospective analysis (e.g. the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute's Fulcrum publication, discussed on []) has characterised the monarchy's role in this episode as unusually assertive or "resurgent." This is an interpretive/retrospective characterisation by named commentators, not a claim this page treats as established — the Istana Negara's own contemporaneous public statements described the process only in terms of a neutral verification of MP support, not a stated preference for either bloc. Any suggestion of a specific royal preference for PH over PN (or vice versa) should be treated strictly as an attributed claim by the commentator making it, per this KB's sensitive-topic protocol for royalty.
what-happens-after-polling
Why sources disagree on PN's seat count
established
Two different things are often run together. First, PN genuinely held 73 seats throughout the 19–24 November negotiation and reached 74 only when it won the postponed Padang Serai poll on 7 December 2022; sources that say "PN 74" of the November events are back-dating the final figure. Second, running wire tallies published while counting was still in progress on election night were unstable by a seat or so on either side before the Election Commission's declarations completed. Neither is a genuine dispute over the final count.
BN's internal decision-making process
contested
Reporting on how, exactly, Zahid Hamidi arrived at sending the pro-Anwar letter to the Istana — and whether he had the internal mandate to commit all 30 BN MPs at the time he sent it — relies on contemporaneous news accounts (including a named BN-aligned source, Vigneswaran) rather than an official BN Supreme Council minute or statement the KB has independently obtained. Treat the internal mechanics (as opposed to the outcome — BN did ultimately back Anwar) as attributed reporting.
still being researched
- What BN's Supreme Council actually decided about Zahid Hamidi's letter to the Istana. The internal dispute is known through named-source news accounts; no party statement or minute has been published.