Parties Hit The Ground Running In Johor Ahead Of Ec Dates

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Barisan Nasional (left) and Pakatan Harapan have begun getting their election machinery in gear although campaign dates for the Johor state elections have yet to be set. (Facebook pic)JOHOR BAHRU: Johor has suddenly woken up to a hive of political activities after a two-day lull for Chinese New Year celebrations.
Dates for fresh elections to the state assembly have yet to be set, and the Election Commission (EC) is scheduled to meet only on Wednesday to decide on nomination day and polling day.
But political parties have already begun their campaigns to win the hearts of voters.
Some political party leaders said it was too long a wait for the EC to set the dates for campaigning as the state assembly was dissolved more than two weeks ago, on Jan 22.
Party leaders from Barisan Nasional (BN), Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan (PH) as well as Warisan and Muda have been on the ground since last Friday for various events.
BN started with the launch of its western region election machinery in Iskandar Puteri, attended by several top leaders including BN chairman and Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. The coalition is scheduled to launch its election machinery in four more zones in the next two weeks, beginning with Pagoh tonight.
Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan said the high level of activities, despite the lack of official dates, reflected the importance of Johor to the political parties.
“Although the dates have not been announced yet and we are still not clear on the standard operating procedures, we are already on the ground,” he told Bernama.
Bersatu started their programme with a current affairs road show led by information chief 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.
PH chairman Anwar Ibrahim, who is PKR president, was in Johor for two days, attending several events, including launching the PKR Youth election machinery.
At one of the events, Anwar called on the PH machinery to work even harder from now on without thinking about who the candidates would be. “The thing to do now is to get the machinery for the state elections ready, we have a few more days (before the EC announces the dates),” he said.
DAP is also going on the aggressive, having named Johor DAP vice-chairman Sheikh Umar Bagharib Ali to seek re-election in Paloh.
Mudah, which was registered only last year, is also organising various activities especially to woo younger voters.
Johor is the first state to hold elections after the implementation of automatic voter registration and the lower voting age of 18, which resulted in a 28% increase in the electoral roll, or 749,731 more people, to 2.599 million voters. - FMT

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