PKR president Anwar Ibrahim announced the candidates for the southern zone of Johor this morning, with the party to contest in Tiram, Larkin, Kempas, Bukit Batu and Pasir Raja.
PKR will announce its candidates for the northern and central zones of Johor later today.
Also present at the naming of the candidates were former education minister Maszlee Malik, PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil, Johor PKR chief Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh and PKR Youth chief Akmal Nasir.
Among PKR’s more prominent candidates are former Tiram assemblyman S Gopalakrishnan, who will seek to defend his seat for another term, and Johor Wanita PKR chief Napsiah Khamis, who will be vying for Kempas.
Dr Zamil Najwah Arbain, who vied for Tanjung Surat in GE14 but lost, will be contesting the Larkin seat. The Pasir Raja and Bukit Batu seats will be contested by new faces, Johor PKR Youth secretary Fakhruddin Moslim and Arthur Chiong, respectively.
Gopalakrishnan hit out at Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman earlier this month for claiming that the Indian community in Ulu Tiram were unhappy with his performance and wanted change.
Syed Saddiq later apologised to the Johor PKR vice-chief for undermining his work, which Gopalakrishnan accepted while thanking Muda for visiting his constituency.
Meanwhile, Napsiah last week expressed unhappiness with Amanah for letting Muda contest in the “easy-to-win” Puteri Wangsa constituency, saying Pakatan Harapan (PH) should have held on to the seat.
“We don’t know how loyal Muda is to us. Their loyalty hasn’t been tested yet, so that’s what we’re concerned about,” she said.
This was followed by reports that PKR and Muda’s negotiations for seats had hit a dead-end.
On Feb 9, PKR said it had offered Muda three seats, without naming the constituencies. In a separate statement the same day, Muda confirmed the offer.
Last week, DAP and Amanah announced that they had decided to allow Muda to contest in six seats in the Johor polls, though the new party’s negotiations with PKR were still ongoing at the time.
The Machap and Bukit Permai seats were given to Muda by DAP, while Amanah made way for Muda in the other four constituencies, Puteri Wangsa, Tenang, Bukit Kepong and Parit Raja.
Bersatu won Puteri Wangsa, Tenang, Bukit Kepong and Bukit Permai in GE14 before it quit PH in 2020, while Barisan Nasional won the Machap and Parit Raja seats.
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