JOHOR BARU: Pakatan Harapan (PH) component party Amanah has identified 20 state seats it is eyeing to contest in the upcoming Johor state election.
Johor Amanah chairman Aminolhuda Hassan said the final number of seats the party would contest is subject to discussions at the state PH level.
“As of now, there is no final decision on whether formal cooperation between Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional will materialise for the Melaka and Johor state elections.
“As such, Johor Amanah is taking the approach of being fully prepared, including for the possibility of three-cornered or even more contests in the Johor state election,” he said.
Aminolhuda, who is also the Sri Gading MP, said this at a press conference held at the Pulai Amanah office in Kempas here on Saturday (Feb 21).
To strengthen preparations, he said the party has identified coordinators for the 20 prospective seats to assist division-level committees in the respective constituencies.
He said the names of the coordinators had been presented and endorsed at the party’s national management committee meeting, but stressed that the final decision on candidates for any selected seat rests with the Amanah national leadership.
“All levels of the party — at the state, division and wing levels, including the women’s and youth wings — will work together to ensure Amanah Johor’s success in the upcoming state election,” he added.
On cooperation within Pakatan, Aminolhuda said an initial discussion on seat allocation was held on Dec 28 among component parties.
He added that negotiations were ongoing, including possible seat swaps among PH parties, but indicated that the overall distribution would not differ significantly from the 2022 Johor state election.
In the previous state polls, Amanah contested 16 seats although 20 had initially been discussed.
He noted that at the time, Amanah and DAP had allocated six seats to Muda — four from Amanah and two from DAP — which affected the final seat distribution.
Asked about the likelihood of multi-cornered contests, Aminolhuda said Amanah had to prepare for various scenarios, including the possibility of four-way fights.
“If there is no cooperation between Pakatan and Barisan, and if there are issues between Bersatu and PAS within Perikatan Nasional when the state assembly is dissolved, it could result in at least four-cornered contests,” he said.
He added that while discussions were ongoing at various levels, Amanah would continue strengthening its grassroots machinery to ensure it is ready whenever the election is called.
