JOHOR BARU: The Johor state election on 12th March 2022 will witness 37 women candidates contesting compared with 28 in the 14th general election (GE14) in 2018.
From the number of women candidates nominated today, Barisan National (BN) has the highest with 14 candidates including Nor Rashidah Ramli for Parit Raja seat and Rashidah Ismail for Pasir Raja. They are among the women candidates retained by BN to defend the seats they won in 2018.
Meanwhile, BN has chosen Kelly Chye Pei Yee, 26, in Mengkibol, as among the youngest candidates in the state election this time.
According to Bernama report, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) has also chosen eight women candidates to win back the state seats for the coalition after a political polemic which saw the PH government collapsed in February 2020.
In another development, Marina Ibrahim, Johor DAP Wanita Publicity Secretary, was among the women candidates contesting for PH in the election.
The Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) a newly formed political party will be contesting for the first time. The party has nominated its secretary-general Amira Aisya Abd Aziz as the candidate for Puteri Wangsa constituency and Nur Afiqah M. Zulkifli as Bukit Kepong candidate.
However, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) has also nominated six female candidates while Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) is fielding four and PKR three.
Earlier in the morning the Election Commission (EC) Chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh had accepted and verified all 239 nomination papers for the Johor state election after the session was closed at 10am on Saturday (26th Feb.2022).
In a media briefing today, Abdul Ghani said the parties that would be taking part in the polls are Barisan Nasional with 56 candidates; Perikatan Nasional (56); Pakatan Harapan (30); Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (42); PKR (20) and 16 independents.
Meanwhile, the Malaysia United Democratic Alliance will also be putting seven candidates; Parti Warisan (six); Parti Bangsa Malaysia (four); Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia and Parti Sosialis Malaysia with one candidate each.
“No nomination papers have been rejected,” he said.
All 56 state seats would see multi-cornered fights, with 35 being four-cornered battles.
There would also be eight five-cornered fights, seven three-cornered fights, and four six-way fights.
Two state seats, namely Kempas and Tiram, are seven-way battles. –Malaysia World News
