Johor Polls: Rafizi’s BERSAMA to contest 15 Seats; Which coalition will suffer?
JOHOR BAHRU: In a political development drawing sharp comparisons to the fragmented dynamics of Tamil Nadu’s recent elections, the impending Johor state legislative polls, scheduled for July 11 have taken a complex turn. Parti Bersama, led by Rafizi Ramli, has officially announced it will enter the fray by contesting 15 selected seats.
Bersama was officially registered in December 2016, and on May 17 this year, Rafizi and Nik Nazmi announced that they were leaving PKR to join Bersama. They also resigned as members of Parliament of their respective constituencies, namely Pandan and Setiawangsa.
For the Johor state assembly elections, Rafizi Ramli revealed that the party’s official candidate roster will be made public this coming Friday (26 June 2026). Out of the 56 state seats up for grabs in the Johor assembly, Bersama has targeted key constituencies currently held by the Democratic Action Party (DAP), UMNO, and PKR.
The targeted 15 constituencies are:
1. Bukit Batu
2. Bukit Naning
3. Mahkota
4. Tiram
5. Puteri Wangsa,
6. Johor Jaya,
7. Permas,
8. Larkin,
9. Stulang
10. Perling
11. Kempas
12. Skudai
13. Kota Iskandar
14. Bukit Permai
15. Senai.
Among Bersama’s targeted seats is Bukit Batu, the sole constituency won by PKR in the 2022 Johor state elections. In that previous encounter, the PKR candidate edged out Barisan Nasional’s (BN) MIC candidate by a razor-thin margin of just 137 votes. It is expected that BN will re-allocate the Bukit Batu ticket to MIC for the upcoming polls.
By imposing itself on seats traditionally contested heavily by Pakatan Harapan (PH), Bersama’s entry is expected to trigger fierce multi-cornered fights. Political observers are drawing direct parallels to Tamil Nadu’s electoral patterns, where actor Vijay’s newly formed party sparked massive debate over whether it would win outright or merely split the vote to the detriment of the established giants, the DMK and the AIADMK.
In Johor’s case, experts anticipate that Bersama’s voter base will primarily fracture the centrist and reformist ballots, disproportionately hurting Pakatan Harapan. The burning question remaining is whether this splintering effect will inadvertently pave a smooth path to victory for Barisan Nasional (BN), or conversely, compromise the prospects of the right-wing Perikatan Nasional (PN) opposition bloc.
Perikatan Nasional Realignment and Consolidation
Meanwhile, clarity has emerged regarding the internal dynamics of Perikatan Nasional. Despite PAS’s previous public proclamations that its working relationship with Bersatu had permanently collapsed and that the two parties would no longer cooperate, a unified front was displayed at a high-level PN coalition meeting held on Sunday (21 June 2026) at PAS headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
Bersatu President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin led his party’s delegation to the summit. Addressing intense rumours surrounding Bersatu’s potential eviction from the bloc, PN leader and Terengganu Menteri Besar Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar confirmed that the issue of expelling Bersatu was completely omitted from the agenda. Instead, indications suggest that Bersatu will continue to be allocated some share of seats under the official Perikatan Nasional banner.
Because Bersatu is not charting an independent path, the Johor election will largely be a three-way battle royale among Perikatan Nasional, Barisan Nasional, and Pakatan Harapan. How the final arithmetic shifts under Bersama’s spoiler threat will depend entirely on localised demographics.
In a secondary development from Sunday’s PN coalition meeting, the bloc officially ratified the inclusion of two component allies. The first is the Pejuang party, initially founded by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and currently led by his son, Mukhriz Mahathir. The second is the newly rebranded Parti Wawasan Malaysia (formerly known as Parti Cinta Malaysia), now led by Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin.
