[13] The 2018 general election saw the Pakatan Harapan coalition and its allies win 121 seats in the country's lower house of parliament, enough to form a majority government.

[15] Mahathir had previously held the position of prime minister from 1981 to 2003, during he led the Barisan Nasional coalition as leader of the United Malays National Organisation.

[16] In the aftermath of the election which ended Barisan Nasiona's 60-year-long rule over the country, members of parliament, state assemblymen, and senators defected from UMNO to BERSATU.

They included high-ranking UMNO politicians such as Mustapa Mohamed and Hamzah Zainudin, with the latter claiming 36 Barisan Nasional members of parliament had signed a pledge supporting Mahathir.

[18][19][20] The government of Pakatan Harapan collapsed in February 2020 when Mahathir tendered his resignation as prime minister and the party announced its withdrawal from the coalition.

The formation of a new coalition government began when BERSATU announced that they would nominate party president Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister,[26] although a supreme council member claimed he had neither been invited to discuss or informed about the decision.

[28] The nomination faced pushback from youth leader Syed Saddiq, who objected to working with UMNO, suggesting a split within the party over Muhyiddin's candidacy.

[38] The party was embroiled in a scandal when it was revealed in June and July 2021 that two separate events involving party members had occurred sometime during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia, with participants reportedly contravening the Malaysian movement control order, a lockdown imposed by the Malaysian government in response to the pandemic.