Sin Chew Daily

It was earlier rumored that the Johor state assembly would be dissolved but there had been no verification until last Saturday, when Johor’s Sultan Ibrahim Ismail met the menteri besar Hasni Mohammad and consented the dissolution of the state assembly.

With that, Johor will have to hold the state election within the next 60 days. The EC will soon meet to pick a date for the election, which will be the third state election in a short span of a few months.

Last November, Melaka state election was sparked off by an infighting within the state Umno that saw the collapse of the previous state government.

Soon after the curtain was down on the Melaka election, Sarawak saw its election war ignited and voters in the state went to the polls in December.

According to incumbent MB Hasni, the Johor state government was to seek fresh voter mandate after the death of Bersatu’s Kempas assemblyman Osman Sapian because the state government became unstable due to the very slim majority.

Prior to the dissolution, BN and PN had 26 seats altogether (BN 16, Bersatu 11 and PAS 1), while PH had 27. However, as PH has said this is not the right time for an election, it is generally believed that the BN/PN state government will not be at risk of collapse despite a single-seat majority. As such, there could have been some other agenda behind the dissolution of the state assembly.

Dissolving the state government to pave way for fresh election at this time is thought to be in Umno’s favor.

After suffering major setbacks in both Melaka and Sarawak, the morale of PH has taken a severe beating, especially PKR that has not won a single seat in these two elections.

In contrast, Umno has done exceptionally well in Melaka, winning a total of 18 seats. As a result, the party has wanted to build on this success to win back seats it lost in Johor in the last general election with the hope the Melaka miracle could be duplicated in Johor.

To PH, the Johor election is going to be a very tough fight, and the coalition may have problem retaining the seats it currently holds, let alone wrestling the state administration.

Meanwhile, Umno has wanted to make use of the election in Johor to show its prowess to Bersatu, while some have analyzed that Umno has wanted to make use of this election to expedite the 15th general election which may involve also the power struggle within the party itself.

While it is normal for political parties and politicians to make the best political plans for themselves, having so many state elections one after another at this crucial moment of pandemic is simply inappropriate.

In the past, the state elections of Melaka and Johor have traditionally been held concurrently with the general elections. Holding state elections separately from general elections could constitute a waste of resources. It has been estimated that this snap election could easily cost hundreds of millions of ringgit. Moreover, this will inconvenience voters who live outstation, as they have to go back to their constituencies twice to vote.

The country is till being plagued by the coronavirus pandemic at this moment. 4,116 new cases were reported on January 22, taking the cumulative total of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 2,829,089. Meanwhile, the highly transmissible Omicron variant has found its way into the community; and the slightest oversight on our part will see the pandemic deteriorating.

Now that the state election will he held within 60 days, it is hoped that all relevant parties will strictly abide by the anti-virus protocol and keep the defense barrier intact so as not to invalidate the efforts we have put in previously to battle the virus.