Anifah was the former Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2018 and formerly a member of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) part of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition until he left to become an independent, despite the fact that he had been a 4-term MP for Kimanis since 2004 and had just retained the seat under BN in the 2018 election a few months prior.