BN and PH go head-to-head in 14 Johor seats

JOHOR BAHRU: Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan will face each other in 14 of the 56 state assembly seats to be contested in the Johor election next week.

There will be five-cornered contests in three seats, four-way contests in 12 seats, and three-cornered fights in 27 seats.

The head-to-head contests between BN and PH will include:

• Machap, where state BN chief Onn Hafiz Ghazi, seeking re-election, is challenged by Nur Hafiz Roslan from PH;
• Benut, where BN newcomer Sumali Reduan will square off against Abdul Razak Ismail of PH;
• Buloh Kasap, where Zahari Sarip of BN, seeking re-election, is challenged by Noraziah Mohd Razit of PH;
• Bentayan, where Chua Lee Huat (BN) and Ng Yak Howe (PH) will battle it out.

Other state seats with head-to-head contests are Bekok, Tangkak, Yong Peng, Parit Yaani, Penggaram, Mengkibol, Tanjung Surat, Pulai Sebatang, Pekan Nanas, and Kukup.

Five-cornered contests will take place in:

•  Puteri Wangsa, between Maszlee Malik (PH), Teow Chia Ling (BN), Sharifah Rashifa Syed Abdul Rashid Aljunied (Muda), Nicholas Paul Vincent (Bersama), and Wang Wee Siong (independent);
• Bukit Naning, between Ghazali Sabari@Atan (BN), Md Ysahrudin Kusni (PH), Mohd Radzi Amin (PN), Iskandar Md Alias (Bersama ), and Jeganathan Subramaniam (independent);
• Bukit Batu, between Kumaran Rama Krishnan (BN), Chiong Sen Sern (PH), Tamili Gopalakrishnan (Bersama), Premanand Maniam@Supramaniam (Muda), and Kamaruzaman Ali (independent).

There will be four-cornered contests in 12 seats: Tenang, Simpang Jeram, Maharani, Paloh, Endau, Tiram, Johor Jaya, Permas, Stulang, Skudai, Kota Iskandar, and Bukit Permai.

Three-cornered fights will occur in 27 seats: Jementah, Pemanis, Kemelah, Bukit Kepong, Bukit Pasir, Gambir, Serom, Sungai Balang, Semerah, Sri Medan, Semarang, Parit Raja, Senggarang, Rengit, Layang-Layang, Mahkota, Kahang, Tenggaroh, Panti, Pasir Raja, Sedili, Johor Lama, Penawar, Larkin, Perling, Kempas, and Senai.

BN and PH are each fielding 56 candidates, PN (33), Bersama (15), Muda (four), Parti Orang Asli Malaysia (Asli) and Parti Sosialis Malaysia one candidate each, and six independents.

In the previous state assembly, BN held 40 seats, PH 12, Perikatan Nasional 3 and Muda 1.

Polling will take place on July 11, with early voting is set for July 7.

* Heavyweights and newcomers feature in key Johor polls battles

* See the full list of candidates for the Johor polls