KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s allies were trounced in a regional election, results showed on Sunday, a grim first electoral test for the leader after three years in office.
Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan coalition won just one of the 20 seats it contested in Sabah, down from the seven it held previously in the eastern state on Borneo island.
“The Sabah election outcome shows Anwar’s coalition lost badly,” said Lee Kuok Tiung, an associate professor and political analyst at Universiti Malaysia.
Saturday’s election was the first of a series of regional polls that will test Anwar’s support ahead of national elections due by early 2028 in the Southeast Asian nation.
Despite PH’s setback, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah — a coalition of state-based parties aligned with Anwar’s ruling bloc — retained control of Sabah, one of Malaysia’s largest and poorest states. GRS faced pressure over its ties to Anwar’s coalition as sentiment grows for greater state autonomy.
Anwar congratulated GRS leader Hajjiji Noor on his reappointment as Sabah chief minister, saying the federal government “fully respects the strong and clear message” of the state’s voters.
“They are demanding real change after being faced with injustice and neglect by almost all parties,” Anwar said on social media on Sunday. He did not address the drubbing his PH allies had taken. His office declined to comment.
Lee said Sabah voters valued regional-based parties, greater autonomy and improvements to basic water, electricity and road infrastructure. Anwar needs to understand local sentiment and review the government’s progress on earlier promises, he said.
A minister from Sabah resigned from Anwar’s cabinet this month after a Sabah court ruled in October that the federal government had unlawfully failed to honor an agreement it reached with the state more than 50 years ago.
Under the agreement, Sabah was entitled to 40 percent of federal revenue derived from the state. Anwar said on Sunday his administration has worked to resolve Sabah’s claims and would continue to assist the state.
Anwar was appointed prime minister in November 2022 after joining forces with some opposing parties to form a government after an election that resulted in a hung parliament.
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Malaysia PM faces electoral setback as allies fall in Sabah state polls
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Malaysia PM faces electoral setback as allies fall in Sabah state polls
- Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan coalition won just one of the 20 seats it contested in Sabah, down from the seven it held previously in the eastern state on Borneo island
US strikes another alleged drug-trafficking boat in Eastern Pacific
WASHINGTON: The US military said Thursday that it has carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
US Southern Command said on social media that the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” It said the strike killed two people. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.
The strike was announced just hours after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region “have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” However, Hegseth did not provide any details or information to back up this claim, made in a post on his personal account on social media.
Neither US Southern Command nor the Pentagon would answer follow-up questions about Hegseth’s claim.
The boat attacks, which began in September 2025, have slowed in frequency since January — a month that only saw one strike after the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. By contrast, the Pentagon struck more than dozen boats in December 2025.
Thursday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 128 people. Last week, the military said that figure was up to 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea. That figure included 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, US Southern Command said. Ten others are believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.
Meanwhile, the families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike in Octobersued the federal government last week, calling the attack a war crime and part of an “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful US military campaign.” The suit is believed to be the first wrongful death case arising from the campaign and will test the legal justification of the attacks, which many experts say are a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.
President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
US Southern Command said on social media that the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” It said the strike killed two people. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.
The strike was announced just hours after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region “have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” However, Hegseth did not provide any details or information to back up this claim, made in a post on his personal account on social media.
Neither US Southern Command nor the Pentagon would answer follow-up questions about Hegseth’s claim.
The boat attacks, which began in September 2025, have slowed in frequency since January — a month that only saw one strike after the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. By contrast, the Pentagon struck more than dozen boats in December 2025.
Thursday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 128 people. Last week, the military said that figure was up to 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea. That figure included 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, US Southern Command said. Ten others are believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.
Meanwhile, the families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike in Octobersued the federal government last week, calling the attack a war crime and part of an “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful US military campaign.” The suit is believed to be the first wrongful death case arising from the campaign and will test the legal justification of the attacks, which many experts say are a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.
President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
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