Key Poll Victory

Malaysia’s ruling coalition, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), won a recent by-election in Kelantan state to take the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS)’s majority in the region to just one seat. The region is poorest in Malaysia and its conservative views have long made it the country’s centre of Islamist fundamentalist politics. The UMNO’s support of asylum-seeking Thai Muslims who fled Thailand into Kelatan undoubtedly helped them in this result, but it may also signal the decreasing popularity of the PAS’s fundamentalist

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