PETALING JAYA: While there have been calls for new blood, contesting parties are still counting on experience over youth in the March 12 Johor election.
Of the 239 candidates who have been fielded by their respective parties, 43 of them are aged 60 and above, compared with just eight who are in their 20s.
Calls for a more equitable gender participation have also gone unheeded. Among the candidates, men outnumber women more than five to one. There are 202 men and only 37 women among the candidates.
On nomination day on Saturday, Election Commission chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh announced that all the 239 papers filed were accepted.
This will be the country’s first election when those aged 18 to 21 get to vote. In Johor, there are about 750,000 of them, accounting for just over a third of the 2.5 million strong electorate.
Apart from the eight who are in their 20s, there are 52 in their 30s. Together, they accounted for only 25% of the candidates.
A total of 72 candidates are in their 40s and 64 are in their 50s.
Surprisingly, it is Barisan Nasional (BN) and Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) rather than Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) that have fielded the youngest candidates.
MCA’s Kelly Chye Pei Yee, who is standing on the BN ticket in Mengkibol, and Muhammad Airel Zabridini, the Pejuang candidate for Tangkak are the youngest, at age 26.
At 72, former Johor exco member Toshrin Jarvanthi is the oldest. The Perikatan Nasional (PN) man is vying for the Bukit Permai seat.
As expected, there is a lot of buzz over who will be the next mentri besar. BN is fielding its Johor chairman Datuk Hasni Mohammad, who also happens to be the incumbent chief executive of the state and the person who triggered the snap polls.
Former mentri besar Datuk Dr Sahruddin Jamal is PN’s choice for the job if it captures the state.
While Pakatan Harapan (PH) has yet to name its man for the job, speculation is that former education minister Dr Maszlee Malik will be the one entering the mentri besar’s office if the coalition wins.
Hasni is in a four-way contest in Benut with PN’s Datuk Isa Ab Hamid, PH’s Haniff @ Ghazali Hosman and Pejuang’s Iskandar Noor Ibrahim.
In Bukit Kepong, Sahruddin is up against former Bukit Serampang assemblyman Ismail Mohamed of BN, Muda’s Nurafiqah M. Zulkifli and Md Taib Md Suhut of Pejuang.
Maszlee will be facing Alagathiran Krishnan of PN, Abd Mutalip Abd Rahim of BN and Ahmad Shafiq Othaman of Pejuang in Layang-Layang.
Among the women candidates, Johor PKR Wanita chief Napsiah Khamis Maharan, who is standing on the PH ticket, is in a seven-way contest for the Kempas seat.
She is up against Ramlee Bohani of BN, Nornekman Osman of Pejuang, Nur Faizal Abdullah of PN and independents Azwan Abd Rashid, Mohd Suhaimi A. Rahman and Tok Hambali.
Tiram, which will also see a seven-way contest, and Kempas will be the most keenly contested seats.
Seats that were won with majorities of fewer than 500 votes in the last election will also be keenly watched.
The first is Machap, which sees a contest among Sri Gading MP and Johor Bersatu chief Datuk Dr Sharuddin Md Salleh, former exco member Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi of BN, religious school principal Azlisham Azahar (PN) and Muda’s R. Sangaran..
In the 14th general election, Umno’s Abd Taib Abu Bakar won the seat by only 404 votes.
Seats that have been won by similarly narrow margins in 2018 are Pemanis, which PH won by 363 votes, Sungai Balang (BN won by 174 votes), Semerah (PH by 98 votes) and Layang-layang (BN by 364 votes).
