THE newly formed Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) will contest two seats in the Johor state elections, its information chief, Zakaria Abdul Hamid, said today.

He said in a statement that the seats and candidates will be announced before the nomination day on February 26. 

The state elections will take place on March 12. 

“The Johor elections are the best place for us to introduce our ‘The Great Reset 2030’ agenda and we hope to offer healthy competition to the other parties,” Zakaria said.

Meanwhile, party secretary-general Nor Hizwan Ahmad told The Malaysian Insight in an interview that the two-month-old party wants to be “ready to win and not just to test the ground” in Johor.

“It is not to test our market. If PBM decides to contest, that means we are ready to win,” he said. 

He also said the party will look at seats with a mixed racial composition. 

Candidates, too, must be from Johor, preferably from the state constituencies, he added. 

“We are looking at areas that have mixed voters. That’s one of our initial targets,” said Nor Hizwan.

“And whoever is contesting must be a local. We don’t want to parachute a candidate. 

“The person must already have been on the ground, staying in and around the areas, serving the community and subscribing to our ideas.”  

The national-level PBM was launched last December, taking over from the Sarawak Workers Party. 

Former Sarawak PKR chairman Larry Sng is the president of PBM while several other top leaders in the party are formerly from PKR. 

It is speculated to be backed by Zuraida Kamaruddin but she has dismissed this, adding that she remains in Bersatu. 

The Johor state elections are called after the state government requested the state assembly to be dissolved, with the consent of Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.

Before its dissolution, the assembly was made up of Barisan Nasional (16 seats), Perikatan Nasional (12) and Pakatan Harapan (27). – February 10, 2022.