PKR is keen to contest the Johor elections with its own branding instead of campaigning under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) logo, Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim said.

“Our grassroots are prepared and prefer to contest with the PKR logo,” Hassan told The Malaysian Insight after Johor Menteri Besar Hasni Mohammad announced on Saturday that the state assembly would be dissolved for elections.

“We feel that the PKR logo is better known than PH in Johor and it would be more advantageous for us to use it,” he said.

The 71-year-old lawyer also believes that the new election SOP, which bars traditional campaigning – such as house visits and large ceramahs – have made it harder for candidates to get their message out.

“Under these circumstances, it’s better to use a logo that voters are used to seeing rather than that of PH.

“If the Johor polls use the same election SOP as Sarawak and Malacca, it will be very hard for us to promote the PH logo.

“Furthermore, voters may not know that PKR is contesting,” Hassan said.

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, the government strict campaigning SOP in place for the Sarawak and Malacca polls, barring almost all forms of physical campaigning.

This indirectly benefited the more established parties such as Barisan Nasional and GPS, allowing both coalitions to sweep Malacca (21 out of 28 seats) and Sarawak (76 out of 82 seats) respectively.

In the Malacca polls, PKR contested 11 seats using the PH logo and failed to win any of them, while in Sarawak, PKR lost all the 28 seats it contested using its own logo.

However, Hassan did say that the issue has not been finalised yet.

“It’s still up to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and the PH leadership, but at the grassroots level, we want to use our own logo,” he said, adding that his PH allies were free to use their own symbol too.

After much speculation, Hasni met with Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, on Saturday afternoon. After which, the sultan announced that he had consented to a dissolution of the state assembly.

Meanwhile, opposition party Pejuang said it wants to contest 42 seats, while Warisan and Muda are also looking to contest in the southern state.

Umno and DAP will defend almost half the seats (14 each) in the 55-seat assembly, followed by Bersatu (11), PKR (7), Amanah (6), MIC (2) and PAS (1).

Hasni decided to call elections following the death of Kempas assemblyman Osman Sapian last December, rather than opt for a by-election in Kempas.

Hasni said he wanted a clear mandate to govern, which was not possible with a slender one-seat majority.

In 2018, the PH coalition had unseated BN after winning 36 of the 56 seats. However, following the Sheraton Move in 2020 and Bersatu’s break from PH, BN partnered with Bersatu-led Perikatan Nasional to rule the state by a one-seat margin. – January 25, 2022.