Malaysia’s rare postponement of a meeting of its royal council has pushed a throne dispute in the state of Negeri Sembilan beyond palace walls, threatening to turn a customary succession row into an electoral liability for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s uneasy governing alliance ahead of snap polls.

The June 23–25 meeting of the Conference of Rulers – a council of Malaysia’s hereditary Malay rulers and state governors – was called off at the eleventh hour amid concerns that allowing Negeri Sembilan’s ruler to take part could be read as recognising one side in a contested succession.

In Malaysia’s constitutional monarchy, rulers retain formal roles in state affairs and Islam, giving the question of who sits on the royal council practical as well as symbolic weight.

At the centre of the dispute is Tuanku Muhriz Munawir, whom four territorial chieftains known as the undang claimed to have removed as Yang di-Pertuan Besar, the state ruler, in April, citing alleged misconduct they did not publicly detail.

They later backed Tunku Nadzaruddin Tuanku Ja’afar, son of the late ruler Tuanku Ja’afar, as his successor, but the state government rejected the move and continued to recognise Muhriz as ruler.

Negeri Sembilan’s system is unique in Malaysia: its ruler is not inherited automatically but chosen by the undang under the state’s adat perpatih matrilineal customary tradition.