A record in the race
With every seat being challenged and most of them seeing multi-cornered fights, the 14th General Election will see a record number of candidates in the fray, well beyond the 1,901 in GE13. There will be a large number of Independents and small parties – a
PETALING JAYA: The 14th General Election will see a record number of candidates with the major political parties already having named nearly 2,000 candidates even before the nomination centres open today at 9am.
With Independents and a rash of smaller parties in the fray, the number is likely see a significant rise when the nomination centres close an hour later at 10am.
The previous high in the number of candidates was 1,901, set in the last election in 2013. In 2008, there were 1,582.
Several hundred more candidates are expected to file their papers today for the 222 parliamentary seats and 505 state seats on offer. The final number could be mindboggling.
The Election Commission revealed that 2,676 nomination papers have been sold for parliamentary seats and 5,238 for state seats.
The importance of women, who make up the majority or 50.58% of the 14,940,624 voters nationwide, will be reflected to a degree in the lineup.
Barisan, for example, will be fielding 85 women candidates for state and parliamentary seats this year, compared to 70 in 2013. As at last count, 21 political parties have thrown their hats into the ring compared to only 12 in 2013.
Apart from Barisan and Pakatan Harapan comprising PKR, DAP, Amanah and Pribumi, others that have revealed their candidates so far include Gagasan Sejahtera which is made up of PAS, Berjasa and Ikatan and Parti Cinta Malaysia.
Other parties that have named their candidates so far are PSM, People’s Alternative Party, Malaysian United Party, Parti Warisan Sabah, Parti Perpaduan Rakyat Sabah, Sabah Progressive Party, Parti Kebangsaan Sabah, PBDSB, Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, Sabah STAR and Sarawak STAR, and Parti Cinta Sabah.
Barisan chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in a recent interview with Bloomberg said he was expecting a “better result” for the ruling coalition.
In the interview, Najib predicted that the Opposition coalition would struggle after the exit of PAS which had helped its performance in 2013.
Polling outfit Merdeka Centre, in its latest survey, also predicted that Barisan would retain power in Parliament.
Its programme director Ibrahim Suffian said Barisan would need to win 95 seats in the peninsula to help it remain in power.
Barisan will need 47.5% of Malay support to win those 95 seats, and the survey predicts the current level of Malay support for Barisan is at 53%, giving the ruling coalition a clear edge.
Najib is set to hit the ground running today. After filing his nomination papers for the Pekan parliamentary seat at Dewan Konvensyen Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, the Prime Minister is scheduled to campaign in his seat before going to Sabah on Monday.
Pakatan chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is contesting for the Langkawi parliamentary seat, will file his papers at the Langkawi district office.
The former Prime Minister will then meet Langkawi’s Indian voters and attend a dialogue for tour guides later in the day.
Tonight, Dr Mahathir is scheduled to speak at a ceramah at Dewan Ho Peng in Kuah town on the island.
Barisan had 130 seats in the last Dewan Rakyat while Pakatan had 72. The remaining seats were held by PAS (13), Warisan (2), PSM (1) and Independents (2).
The parliamentary seats of Jelebu and Paya Besar were empty following the death of the representatives – Jelebu’s Datuk Zainudin Ismail in December last year and Paya Besar’s Datuk Abdul Manan Ismail in February.