The 13th Kedah state election was held on 5 May 2013. Polling took place in 36 constituencies throughout the Malaysian state of

Kedah Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman (Islam), Aman (دار الأمان; Arabic for 'The Safe Abode') and historically as Queda, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of ...

, with each electing a State Assemblyman to the

Kedah State Legislative Assembly The Kedah State Legislative Assembly () is the state legislature of the Malaysian state of Kedah. It is a unicameral institution, consisting of a total of 36 lawmakers representing single-member constituencies throughout the state. Members of t ...

. The election was conducted by the Malaysian Election Commission. The state election was held concurrently with the

2013 Malaysian general election General elections were held in Malaysia on Sunday, 5 May 2013. Voting took place in all 222 parliamentary constituencies, each electing one MP to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant house of Parliament. State elections also took place in 505 state ...

Barisan Nasional Barisan Nasional (BN; ) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1974 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties to succeed the Alliance Party. It is the third largest political coalition with 30 seats in ...

(BN), having lost the state for the first time in their history in the 2008 election, regains the state government after winning 21 of the 36 seats.

Pakatan Rakyat Pakatan Rakyat (PR; ) was an informal Malaysian political coalition and successor to Barisan Alternatif (BA). The political coalition was formed by the People's Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP), and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Par ...

(PR), the informal coalition of

Democratic Action Party The Democratic Action Party (DAP; ) is a social democracy, social democratic and Secularism, secular political party in Malaysia, sitting on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum. As one of four component parties of ...

(DAP),

Parti Islam Se-Malaysia The Malaysian Islamic Party, also known as the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party ( Malay: ''Parti Islam Se-Malaysia''; abbrev: PAS), is an Islamist political party in Malaysia. Ideologically focused on Islamic fundamentalism and Malay dominance ...

(PAS) and

Parti Keadilan Rakyat Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR; ), is a centre-left, reformist political party in Malaysia formed on 3 August 2003 through a merger of the party's predecessor, the National Justice Party, with the socialist Malaysian People's Party. The party's ...

(PKR), won the remaining 15 seats to become the main opposition. This election is the only time the DAP-PAS-PKR coalition is referred as Pakatan Rakyat during the Kedah state election campaign (although each party is contesting using their own name and logo), and also the final Kedah state election which the three parties works as a coalition; PR splits in 2015 due to disagreements between DAP and PAS.

Background

Political parties

Electoral divisions

Issues

Campaign

Social media

Rallies

Results

Aftermath

Mukhriz Mahathir Mukhriz bin Mahathir (Jawi alphabet, Jawi: مخرج بن محاضر; born 25 November 1964) is a Malaysian people, Malaysian politician and businessman who served as the 11th and 13th Menteri Besar of Kedah from May 2013 to February 2016 and a ...

, the UMNO and BN state chairman and MLA for Ayer Hitam, were sworn in as the new Kedah Menteri Besar on the next day, in front of the Sultan of Kedah. But on 3 February 2016, Mukhriz resigned as Menteri Besar after facing no-confidence vote in the state assembly, and were replaced by

Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah Ahmad Bashah bin Md Hanipah is a Malaysian politician. He is a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a component party in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. He was the Menteri Besar of Kedah from 4 February 2016 to 10 May ...

. Mukhriz later was sacked from UMNO on 24 June the same year, and together with his father

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad (; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author and doctor who was respectively the fourth and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and from 2018 to 2020. He was the ...

and other sacked UMNO members formed

Malaysian United Indigenous Party The Malaysian United Indigenous Party ( Malay: ''Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia''; abbrev: BERSATU or PPBM) is a nationalist political party in Malaysia. The party was preceded by the United Indigenous Association of Malaysia ( Malay: ) and ...

(PPBM/BERSATU) a month later. The previous Menteri Besar and MLA for Sungai Limau,

Azizan Abdul Razak Azizan bin Abdul Razak (25 October 1944 – 26 September 2013) was a Malaysian politician who served as the 10th Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of the state of Kedah from 2008 to 2013. A member of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), he was ...

died on 26 September 2013 due to internal organ failure and bacterial infection. His death triggered the 2013 Sungai Limau by-election, which were won by PAS candidate to retain the seat. In 2015, the PR coalition was disbanded, due to disagreements between PAS and DAP over the former's insistence to implement the Islamic penal code, known as ''

hudud ''Hudud'' is an Arabic word meaning "borders, boundaries, limits". The word is applied in classical Islamic literature to punishments (ranging from public lashing, public stoning to death, amputation of hands, crucifixion, depending on the c ...

'', in the State of Kelantan. Also in 2015, a group of progressives in PAS led by

Mohamad Sabu Mohamad bin Sabu ( Jawi: محمد بن سابو; born 14 October 1954), commonly known as Mat Sabu, is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security in the Unity Government administration under Prime ...

exits the party after losing in the party election, later forming National Trust Party (Amanah). Amanah joined forces with DAP and PKR in forming a successor coalition to PR, later known as

Pakatan Harapan Pakatan Harapan (PH; stylised as HARAPAN; ) is a Malaysian Parliamentary group, political coalition consisting of Centre-left politics, centre-left political parties which was formed in 2015 to succeed the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. It has led ...

(PH) after PPBM/BERSATU joined the coalition in 2017. As a result of the split, PH were reduced to 6 seats in the state assembly, but later gained 3 seats after defection of 2 PAS MLA ( Phahrolrazi Zawawi to Amanah,

Amiruddin Hamzah Amiruddin bin Hamzah ( Jawi: أميرالدين بن حمزة; born 20 April 1962) is a Malaysian politician who served as the Deputy Minister of Finance in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration from July 2018 to the collapse of the PH adm ...

to PPBM/BERSATU) and 1 UMNO MLA (Mukhriz to PPBM/BERSATU).