Malaysian Youth Vote in the Spotlight as Johor State Prepares for Election – The Diplomat

Tomorrow, voters within the Malaysian state of Johor will go to the polls in a multi-sided contest that would have far-reaching ramifications on the nationwide political panorama forward of common elections that may very well be referred to as as early as July.

Elections in Johor, an economically vital state on the tip of peninsular Malaysia bordering Singapore, are all the time watched carefully, however with tomorrow’s ballot that might be particularly the case. It’s the first Malaysian election to be held since a constitutional modification launched automated voter registration and lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 (an modification often known as Undi18). On account of Undi18, Malaysia’s citizens has swelled by 5.8 million new eligible voters, a rise of round 40 p.c, whereas the variety of eligible voters in Johor has elevated by virtually 30 p.c, with greater than three-quarters of one million new voters added to the lists.

In keeping with Reuters, this has prompted the raft of competing events – which embody the previous ruling coalitions Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN), an opposition bloc, and a raft of smaller events and unbiased candidates – to tweak their campaigns to woo youthful and first-time voters. Many events are fielding youthful candidates, and working campaigns that promise jobs, help for digital connectivity, and assist for small companies.

Most observers count on that the state election will see positive factors by the United Malays Nationwide Organisation (UMNO), the dominant member of the BN coalition. On the 2018 election, UMNO and BN had been spectacularly tipped out of energy by the hands of a brand new opposition coalition referred to as Pakatan Harapan (PH), led by former prime minister and UMNO turncoat Mahathir Mohamad. Within the concurrent elections in Johor, it additionally misplaced management of the state authorities for the primary time in six many years, because the PH notched up a considerable 17-seat majority within the 56-seat state meeting.

However UMNO has since returned to energy by way of the backdoor, after internecine political maneuvering introduced down Mahathir and his PH coalition authorities in early 2020. This paved the best way for UMNO to return to workplace, first as a junior accomplice of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s PN administration, after which the reigning get together after Muhyiddin’s resignation and alternative by Ismail final August.

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UMNO stalwarts are actually bullish about making an analogous reconquest of Johor, because the prelude to reaffirming their return to energy on the subsequent common election. After main UMNO and BN to a considerable victory at a state election in Melaka late final 12 months, an additional success would additional consolidate the place of Prime Minister Ismail.

Ismail wrote on Fb final week that the get together was aiming to clinch two-thirds of the state meeting. “God prepared, based mostly on the onerous work and powerful willpower from the Barisan Nasional grassroots, the coalition will win the Johor state elections,” he wrote. “We solely have one alternative, to win large! The phrase defeat just isn’t in our battle dictionary.” BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has expressed related confidence, claiming that the coalition, borne alongside by the momentum from the Melaka polls, is aiming to win 38 out of the 56 accessible seats.

Other than PH, the opposite vital participant would be the PN coalition, probably the most dominant member of which is Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu). Regardless of serving as a accomplice of BN within the final state authorities (because it did on the federal degree below Muhyiddin), PN might be competing face to face with BN in Johor. The previous has largely targeted its marketing campaign efforts on anti-corruption appeals, a dig maybe to the gargantuan 1MDB corruption scandal that embroiled former Prime Minister Najib Razak of UMNO, and helped result in his authorities’s defeat on the 2018 election. Regardless of the continued felony circumstances regarding his involvement within the 1MDB theft, Najib has been on the hustings for BN in Johor, and there are even rumors that he may in some way finagle his means again to energy after the following common election.

However as Ong Kian Ming famous this week, the Johor election poses a extra vital problem to BN than the ballot in Melaka did. In Melaka, the PH loved a majority of simply two seats over BN (15 vs. 13) within the 28-seat state meeting. In Johor, PH at present enjoys a way more substantial 17-seat majority.

Then there may be the unknown influence of the inflow of younger voters. Whereas it’s in all probability incorrect to imagine {that a} higher youth vote will translate to a higher help for the reformist agenda of PH or a pointy flip in opposition to the ethnic Malay nationalism that has served UMNO so nicely since independence in 1957, it stands to motive that such a big improve of the citizens will alter the political dynamics in Johor, and within the nation at giant, in unpredictable methods.

No matter occurs in Johor will bear watching as a sign of how Undi18 will influence the following common election, and whether or not the change within the citizens is matched by any vital change within the patterns and themes which have lengthy ruled Malaysian politics.