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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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A by-election was held on 13 October 2018, for the Dewan Rakyat seat of Port Dickson.[1] 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.[2] 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.
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'.[3] 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.[1]
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.[4]