Editor’s Introduction

Malaysia is a representative democracy.Regular elections are held to choose the 222 parliamentary representatives and 13 state legislative assembly representatives.The Parti Perikatan and its successor, Barisan Nasional (BN), gained more than two-thirds of the seats in the federal parliament from 1955 to 2008 (except in 1969).This record was broken in 2008 as a result of the emergence of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and the defeat of BN in five states.In 2013, BN failed to maintain its customary two-thirds majority for the second time under Malaysia's sixth Prime Minister, Najib Razak.Sabah and Sarawak BN emerged as "fixed deposit states" in both the 2008 and 2013 elections, contributing a sufficient number of seats to prevent PR from assuming control of the federal government.BN was ultimately defeated in 2018, and the Pakatan Harapan (PH) (formerly PR) took control.Sabah BN also succumbed, bringing an end to its decades-long reign in Sabah.BN retained power in Sarawak despite losing half of its seats to the opposition and enduring defeats at the national and state levels.Sarawak BN under Abang Johari Openg (also known as Abang Jo) moved swiftly to form the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) in an effort to separate the ruling local elites from their federal BN coalition allies.By severing ties with BN, GPS intended to preserve its ability to align itself with other potential federal allies.Abang Jo and GPS were put to test at the 2021 Sarawak State Election (henceforth SSE21).Many predicted that GPS would prevail with a comfortable majority, winning more than 72 seats (Puyok 2021a, 11).As it turned out, GPS won more than 90% of the seats in the state assembly during SSE21 (Puyok 2021b, 11).Given that newcomers such as the Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) were able to match GPS in terms of campaign publicity, many analysts were surprised by the outcome of