YOUTH-BASED Muda, which has ditched Pakatan Harapan (PH) for the August 12 state elections, has unveiled four candidates in its first round of announcement.

They will be contesting the Seri Serdang, Batu Tiga, Sentosa and Bukit Antarabangsa seats, all in Selangor.

Three of the seats – Seri Serdang, Batu Tiga and Sentosa – are PH strongholds.

The other was held by Perikatan Nasional before the dissolution of the state legislative assembly.

Muda’s first batch of candidates are Amir Hariri Abd Hadi and three women – Saiyidah Izzati Nur Razak Maideen, Thanusha Ramanieswaran and Melanie Ting Yi-Hlin.

They are all electoral novices but with some activism experience.

Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has urged voters to give his colleagues a chance in the elections, saying that they are well worth and capable.

“They are young and talented, and their hearts are in service,” the Muar lawmaker said.

“They don’t just represent different communities in terms of background. They are multiracial and above and beyond that, I think their hearts are in service.

“In a political situation where it is divided into two giant political blocs, we hope the people will give these candidates an opportunity to serve so that we can move Malaysia forward.”

Muda will be partnering Parti Sosialis Malaysia for the state elections.

Prior to this, 18-month-old Muda had worked with PH in facing the Johor polls as well as last year’s general election.

After the November polls, Muda continued to back the PH-led unity government and hoped to be accepted into the PH coalition, which never came.

Syed Saddiq said the party decided to go solo after PH and the unity government failed to deliver on the promised reforms.

The candidates

Amir, who is Muda secretary-general, will be contesting the Seri Serdang seat.

The 32-year-old was a coordinator for human rights group Suaram and a Chevening scholar.

He is the most prominent of the four Muda candidates. He said he wanted to contest in Seri Serdang as he has spent a lot of time in the constituency growing up.

“My dad is a hardcore PAS member and used to travel to Kelantan to listen to speeches. Now, I’m with Muda and I want to say that despite our differences, we should not lose relationships due to politics,” Amir said.

“I hope that the people will give me the mandate, trust me and believe in me. I will do everything to turn the place around.”

In the 2018 general election, Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud of Amanah won the Seri Serdang seat with a majority of more than 14,000 votes.

Saiyidah, fondly known as Cheda Razak, 35, is a Shah Alam native and a lawyer by profession. She will be contesting in the Batu Tiga constituency.

Last month, the PH state government appointed her the Selangor unity ambassador for Batu Tiga.

PKR’s Rodziah Ismail won the Batu Tiga seat, which has been represented in the Selangor legislative assembly since 1986, in 2018.

Rodziah, a three-term incumbent in Batu Tiga, won the last election with a 15,616-vote majority in a three-cornered contest.

Thanusha, 25, a teacher by profession, will be fielded in the Sentosa constituency.

The Muda central executive committee member teaches in refugee communities.

The Sentosa seat, which was created in 2018, is the first Indian-majority constituency in Selangor with almost half of its voters being Indian.

The incumbent is Gunarajah George of PKR. He won the five-cornered contest in 2018 with a whopping 33,600-vote majority.

The fourth candidate announced by Muda is Melanie Ting Yi-Hlin, 23.

The law graduate, who is the head of media for Muda, will be contesting the Bukit Antarabangsa seat, held by former Selangor menteri besar Mohamed Azmin Ali until the dissolution of the state assembly. Ting is also a women’s empowerment activist.

Azmin, who had successfully defended the seat for three terms on a PKR ticket, is now with Bersatu.  

In 2018, Azmin won the seat with a 25,512-vote majority in a four-cornered contest.

Azmin, who is now a Bersatu supreme council member, has yet to announce if he would defend the seat again.

Muda will be announcing its next batch of candidates later this week. It is expected to contest less than 10% of the total number of seats in the six states.

The elections in Selangor, Penang, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Negri Sembilan will be held simultaneously on August 12.

Nomination day is on July 29 while early voting is on August 8.

A total of 245 seats will be contested – 32 in Terengganu, 36 each in Kedah and Negri Sembilan, Penang (40), Kelantan (45) and Selangor (56). – July 17, 2023.