(Bloomberg) -- Former Malaysia Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional alliance has won the Padang Serai parliamentary election in the northern state of Kedah, Malaysiakini reported late Wednesday night.

The pro-Malay, Islamist coalition’s candidate Azman Nasrudin defeated Pakatan Harapan’s Sofee Razak by more than 16,000 votes, the report said, citing unofficial results.

The Padang Serai election was deferred to Dec. 7 after Pakatan Harapan candidate Karupaiya Muthusami, who won the seat in the 2018 polls, died days before the Nov. 19 nationwide vote.

The election result boosts Perikatan Nasional’s seat tally to 74 in the 222-member lower house. That poses little threat to Malaysia’s newly elected premier Anwar Ibrahim, whose reformist Pakatan Harapan alliance won 82 seats, the most of any coalition but not enough to form a majority.

Anwar has since secured pledges of support from multiple key political alliances, including the former ruling bloc Barisan Nasional, which he says gives him enough votes for a two-thirds majority.

--With assistance from Kok Leong Chan.

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