2018 Port Dickson by-election
A by-election was held on 13 October 2018 for the Dewan Rakyat seat of Port Dickson. The seat became vacant after the resignation of the incumbent member Danyal Balagopal Abdullah, a member of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and the governing Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition. This was the first federal by-election since the 9 May 2018 general election (GE14), which saw the first-ever change of federal government in Malaysia's history.
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P132 Port Dickson seat in the Dewan Rakyat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Port Dickson federal constituency border and its corresponding state assembly seats. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Danyal Balagopal resigned his seat to pave a way for PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim to return to Parliament, it was dubbed as the 'PD Move'. Anwar was unable to contest the earlier GE14 due to his imprisonment on sodomy charges, which were widely accepted as politically motivated. He received a royal pardon after PH defeated the then-ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) and came into power, restoring his political rights and his eligibility to contest in elections.
The Port Dickson parliamentary constituency had 75,770 registered voters in this by-election. 43% were Malays, 33% Chinese, 22% Indian and 2% other races.
Anwar won the by-election with an increased majority, returning to Parliament for the first time in three years.