PKR’s Simpang Renggam MP Maszlee Malik (centre) during the launch of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) parliamentary constituency’s state election machinery at the Simpang Renggam PKR office today. January 28, 2022. — Picture by Ben Tan
SIMPANG RENGGAM, Jan 28 — The Simpang Renggam Pakatan Harapan (PH) chapter has agreed to use the PKR logo for Johor state election, said Dr Maszlee Malik.
He said PKR’s leadership will be asked to allow any PH candidate to use the party’s logo.
He claimed the move was to avoid any confusion voters who were more familiar with the logo.
“We will leave this matter to the party’s leadership, but for Simpang Renggam PH the PKR logo will be used by the respective candidates to contest for both the Layang-Layang and Machap state seats.
“For us in Simpang Renggam PH it has been agreed and the usage of the PKR logo applies irrespective if the candidate is from other component parties such as Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) or DAP,” said Maszlee after a event officiating PH’s Maxhap and Layang-Layang election machinery at the Simpang Renggam PKR office here today.
Present to lend their support were Johor PKR women chief Napsiah Khamis Maharan and other division leaders.
Maszlee, who was previously an independent MP for Simpang Renggam, said the decision to use PKR’s logo was based on a survey made.
“The PKR logo is considered more significant and recognisable. It also means a lot to PH because it was with this logo that we managed to win the 14th general election (GE) in 2018,” he said.
It was reported yesterday that PKR, as one of PH’s component parties, will use its own party logo for the Johor state election, while Amanah and DAP will continue to use the PH logo.
Maszlee, who had been the education minister in the previous PH administration, said at present his party has not received any word from the party’s leadership regarding the candidates who will contest in both state seats under the Simpang Renggam parliamentary constituency.
Despite that, he said that the Simpang Renggam PH machinery is ready to be mobilised for the polls, irrespective of which party the candidate is from.
“So far, all 26 polling district centres (PDM) in the Simpang Renggam parliamentary constituency are open, of which 14 are in Machap and 12 in Layang-Layang,” said Maszlee.
Maszlee said he did not know if his name was among those selected by the party to stand as a candidate in the Layang-Layang state seat, that was rumoured to pave the way for him to be PKR’s mentri besar candidate.
He stressed that the appointment of the Johor’s mentri besar post falls directly under the power of State Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.
“The question does not arise on whether I intend to contest in one of the seats, especially in Layang-Layang that was previously won by Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, who is the grandson to the late Umno founder and president Datuk Onn Jaafar.
“As the Simpang Renggam MP, my intention is to only see PH win in these two state constituencies,” he said.
On the issue of that saw PH candidates lose big in both recent state elections, Maszlee said it was different due to sentiments in the two states were markedly different.
He pointed out that both the Melaka and Sarawak state elections had different circumstances.
“For Johor, we have the support and of course our machinery is not easy to give In to. In fact, we are also eager to face the state election this time round,” said Maszlee.