Analysis: What PAS’ Terengganu by-election win means for the Islamist party’s national ambitions and Anwar’s Malay powerbase

Meanwhile, Dr Wong said that Mr Anwar can attempt to imitate PAS but he would remain to be seen as “fake” by the hardliner, conservative voters.

“In a divided society, most voters want more ‘authentic products’ and shun ‘moderates’ that try to imitate their radical rivals,” said Dr Wong. 

“If he tries to leapfrog PAS, he would be pushing his liberal and ethnic-minority base to stay at home in protest,” he added. 

Analysing the Kemaman results, Dr Wong said it is likely that PAS garnered a huge margin of victory because a “sizeable portion of BN and PH supporters” did not go out to vote. 

He noted that the voter turnout in Kemaman had dropped by 15 percentage points as compared to last year, and that the proportion of voters who supported the BN candidate dropped from 34 per cent to 20 per cent. 

“Since Samsuri’s victory was seen as a foregone conclusion, they might not see the point to turn up at polling booths to save UMNO’s and Anwar’s face,” opined Dr Wong, referring to BN’s main component party the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO).

He added that PH’s main partner in the unity government coalition, UMNO, has also lost its appeal among Malay voters. 

Kemaman constituency and the state of Terengganu was previously a BN stronghold but PN now holds all 32 state seats and eight federal seats in the northern east coast state. 

“The only way to prevent a PN-led government is the revival of UMNO as a respectable moderate nationalist/conservative party,” said Dr Wong. 

He opined that UMNO needs to push through a leadership transition to kickstart the revival. 

“They need a leadership change that would get UMNO to seriously reinvent itself as a viable product between PN (its main rival) and PH (its best partner for a coalition government),” added Dr Wong.