PAS, which supports a hardline interpretation of Islamic law, emerged as a surprisingly powerful party at the election, and has the greatest number of seats held by a single party in parliament.
Some residents in Perlis, who were once a Barisan Nasional BN stronghold, were attracted to the possibility of change, according to CNA.
I feel that we need a government that leads us in a more Islamic direction. With the uncertain state of our country, we want religious scholars to be our leaders, one voter told CNA.
There were concerns among some minority groups.
One Indian resident said it might get harder for us to get help now. We were able to get help last time under BN, even though it wasn't much. We are quite concerned, like if we are excluded and things like that. Perlis was among the PAS victories, along with Kedah. PAS swept all 14 seats in its stronghold of Kelantan and made history by bringing home all eight seats in Terengganu.
The party has also made inroads outside of its traditional strongholds, including winning two seats in Penang, which is widely seen to be one of the most liberal states in the country.
A lot of the PKR heavyweights were defeated in the northern states, especially where a lot of Parti Amanah Negara heavyweights were defeated, said Ms Aira Azhari, senior manager of the Democracy and Governance Unit at the Independent think-tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs.
Parti Keadilan Rakyat PKR and Parti Amanah Negara are part of the ruling Pakatan Harapan PH coalition.
The last parliamentary seat in Malaysia will take place on Wednesday with PN vying for the seat in a multi-cornered fight.
The vote for the Padang Serai seat in Kedah was delayed after the death of a PH candidate during campaigning.
PAS is campaigning aggressively by playing up racial and religious issues tactics it used to great effect during the general election.
Factors at play in the surge that has lifted the nation into new territory include PN's use of social media and Tiktok has become its secret weapon One video involving a swipe challenge by PN chairman Muhyiddin Yassin, for instance, has amassed more than 4 million views so far.