Johor polls: Election activities ramp up after quiet, joyful CNY celebration

JOHOR BARU: It was as if the war siren had been sounded with Johor suddenly waking up to a hive of activities after two days of quiet and joyful Chinese New Year celebration.

The state has turned lively again with various political activities, although the date for the state election has not been set yet.

The Election Commission (EC) is scheduled to meet on Wednesday (Feb 9) to decide on the important dates for the election, but political parties are already seen to have started their campaigning to win the hearts of Johor voters.

Several political party leaders said it was too long a wait for the EC to set the date for the election seeing that the state assembly was dissolved on Jan 22 which was more than two weeks ago.

Many leaders from component parties in Barisan Nasional, Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan, as well as the new parties, such as the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) and Parti Warisan, have been on the ground organising various events since Friday (Feb 4).

The Barisan coalition started with the launch of its western region election machinery in Iskandar Puteri on Friday and it was attended by several top leaders from Umno, MCA and MIC, including Barisan chairman and Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

The coalition is also scheduled to launch its election machinery in four more zones in the next two weeks, beginning with the northern zone at the Seri Pekembar Complex in Pagoh on Sunday (Feb 6) night.

Umno information chief Shahril Sufian Hamdan, when asked on the high-spiritedness of political parties in Johor even though the EC had not set the date for the election yet, said it reflected how important the Johor state election is to the political parties concerned.

"Although the date has not been announced and although we are still not clear yet on the standard operating procedure (SOP), we are already on the ground," he told Bernama when met, on Saturday (Feb 5).

Meanwhile, Bersatu started their programme with the "Jelajah Penerangan Isu Semasa” programme, which was led by Bersatu information chief Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan, in Muar five days ago, followed by a series of tours in Kluang and Pontian, besides launching their machinery in several areas.

As for Pakatan, its chairman and PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had attended several events, including launching the Keadilan Youth election machinery, when he was in Johor for two days.

In his speech at one of the events, Anwar called on the Pakatan machinery to work even harder from now on without thinking on who their candidates would be.

"The thing to do now is to get the machinery for the state election ready, we have a few more days (before the EC announces the date),” he said.

DAP is also going on the aggressive, having named Johor DAP vice-chairman Sheikh Umar Bagharib Ali, who is incumbent Paloh Assemblyman as its candidate who will contest under the Pakatan ticket.

Muda - only registered last year and led by former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman - is also organising various activities in an effort to win the hearts of the voters, especially the young people.

What is certain is that all parties are seen working hard to ensure their victory in the state election, especially with Johor becoming the first state to experience implementation of the automatic voter registration and Undi 18, which saw an increase of 28 percent of registered voters in Johor, from 749,731 people to 2.599 million people.

Despite the "enthusiasm" by all parties to campaign, it is important that they comply with the stipulated standard operating procedures (SOP) to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The EC is expected to announce the date of the Johor state election a special meeting on Wednesday (Feb 9).- Bernama