THE Johor government may have a single-seat majority, but elections are needed in order to restore stability, said Menteri Besar Hasni Mohammad today.

“The simple majority to govern in Johor is 29 seats, but when the Kempas seat was vacated the government was one seat short of that simple majority,” Hasni, the Benut assemblyman, said during a press conference his audience with the Sultan of Johor, who agreed to the dissolution of the state assembly.

The Kempas seat was vacated last year when assemblyman and former menteri besar Osman Sapian died.

The state government had originally considered holding a by-election, but the flooding made it dangerous, Hasni said.

“As you know, on December 18 there were floods in Selangor and Pahang and the prediction was that Johor would be next. As such, we had to be careful about holding a by-election during this time.

“Thankfully, we did not and there was indeed flooding on December 31,” Hasni said.

Now that the floods are over and the relief centres closed, the state government decided that state elections could be held.

“We felt that it is important to restore the Johor government to what it was: dynamic, stable and always exciting with new programmes, but this is difficult when the government doesn’t even have simple majority and has to rely on the opposition.

“As such, we decided to dissolve the assembly to seek a fresh mandate through elections,” Hasni said.

A short time ago, Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar consented to dissolving the assembly for elections, having met with Hasni.

At the time of dissolution, the make-up of the 56-member Johor assembly was: Barisan Nasional (16 seats), Perikatan Nasional (12), and Pakatan Harapan (27).

In 2018, PH unseated BN after winning 36 of the 56 seats, leaving BN with 19 seats and PAS one.

However, following the Sheraton Move in 2020 and Bersatu’s break from PH, BN partnered with Bersatu-led PN to rule the state by a one-seat margin. – January 22, 2022.