Umno's Lendu assemblyperson Sulaiman Ali has been appointed the new Malacca chief minister. 

The two-term assemblyperson was sworn-in this afternoon as the 12th Malacca chief minister by governor Mohd Khalil Yaakob.

Sulaiman's appointment comes after the previous Pakatan Harapan state government collapsed last week when Bersatu assemblyperson Mohd Rafiq Naizamohideen and three others withdrew from the coalition. 

Though chief minister Adly Zahari was dismissed after that, the new cooperation appeared to get off to a bumpy start in Malacca as the state BN chairperson Abd Rauf Yusoh later declared that Bersatu would not be part of the new state government as it did not attend a meeting to discuss their cooperation.

Rafiq, who is the Malacca Bersatu deputy chief, then said Malacca Bersatu will support whoever is appointed as the new chief minister.

Aside from Rafiq and his Bersatu colleague Noor Effandi Ahmad (Teluk Mas), Norhizam Hassan Baktee (Pengkalan Batu) and Muhammad Jailani Khamis (Rembia) defected from DAP and PKR respectively.

Sulaiman has been the Lendu assemblyperson since 2013.

In GE14, he successfully defended his Lendu seat with a reduced majority of 627 votes, compared to his majority in 2013 which was 2,503 votes.