Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan said with such support, the coalition hopes to achieve the target of forming a more stable state government with the mandate from the people of Johor.

He added that this was based on his observations and experience as Pontian MP, where most voters from the community expressed a desire to support BN.

“I have seen it myself how the Chinese community wants to return to BN. In Johor, the Chinese community comprises 37% of the electorate.

“I feel that this group of voters do not trust Pakatan Harapan (PH) especially, and that they want to return to BN. For me, this is a sign that in the Johor polls, BN has a good chance,” he told Bernama.

He added that most of the Chinese community expressed frustration with the PH administration for failing to fulfil its promises to develop the state constituencies won during the last general election (GE14) in 2018.

On the BN candidates in the upcoming polls, Ahmad said although BN featured more than 70% new faces, each candidate had experience in the political arena.

“Looking at the list of candidates, I am happy because our choices are almost similar to the Melaka state elections.

“With such similarities, there is also a possibility that we will see a repeat of the landslide victory here in Johor. That is our hope because what we did in Melaka was brave and we are doing it in Johor too,” he said.

Yesterday, BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said there were more than 70% new faces as candidates in the Johor polls.

He added that more than 80% of the candidates for the 56 state seats were those with high academic qualifications, and possessed the required criteria of “winnability, acceptability and likeability”.

In another development, Ahmad said the Umno general assembly 2021 would not be postponed and would take place according to schedule from March 16 to 19.