KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 6): All Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia will see at least three-cornered fights in the 15th General Election (GE15).
However, the Federal Territory and Selangor seats are more crowded with some having from eight to 10 candidates contesting for a seat.
GE15 will see a total of 945 candidates — unprecedented in terms of number — vying for 222 Parliament seats with the greatest number of voters.
The most hotly contested seat, the Batu Parliamentary seat — an Opposition stronghold since the general election in 2008 — will see fresh faces, a returning MP and the incumbent fighting in a 10-cornered fight in GE15.
According to BowerGroupAsia senior analyst Arinah Najwa, the Batu constituency is perceived as a 'winnable' seat by many of the contesting parties after an independent candidate won the seat in GE14 in 2018.
“Prior to GE14, the seat was held by PKR and Barisan Nasional (BN), so there is no clear 'stronghold' by any party in Batu,” she explained to theedgemarkets.
“The second reason [for this perception] could be due to an increased interest in political participation. We've seen a lot more new faces in this general election, and Batu's voter diversity and its MPs' representation history could be a good testing ground for new candidates.”
The Batu seat will be one of the most intensely-watched seats in Kuala Lumpur as its former MP Chua Tian Chang, also known as Tian Chua, is making a comeback as an independent candidate after he was dropped by PKR. He will face off against incumbent MP P Prabakaran, 26, from PKR, who he endorsed in GE14.
The other candidates in Batu include BN’s Datuk A Kohilan Pillay who is MIC vice-president; Perikatan Nasional (PN)'s Azhar Yahya from PAS; Parti Pejuang Tanah Air's Wan Azliana Wan Adnan; Parti Warisan Sabah's P Naganathan; and Parti Rakyat Malaysia's Zulkifli Abd Fatah.
There are also three independent candidates — lawyer-cum-activist Siti Kasim, social media influencer Nur Fathiah Syazwana, also known as'Cleopatra', and Too Cheng Huat.
The Ampang Parliamentary seat has the second-highest number of candidates, creating history with a nine-cornered fight in GE15. Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin now of Parti Bangsa Malaysia has been the incumbent since 2008.
Meanwhile, Bangi, Kota Raja and Sepang will each see eight people vying for a seat in Parliament.
“These seats are urban or semi-urban within the Greater Klang Valley area where the nation's wealth is concentrated, so it can be expected that these will be hot seats.
“Parties could be fronting candidates for a more subtle reason too, to dilute the votes of others so that their party allies could win,” Arinah said.
Arinah agreed that so many multi-cornered fights were unprecedented especially with new coalitions, new parties and new candidates emerging just before nomination day.
Currently, there are five political coalitions comprising 21 political parties — the highest ever in Malaysian history — namely BN, PN, Pakatan Harapan (PH), Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and Gerakan Tanah Air, which is led by Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (GTA-Pejuang).
The highest number of candidates come under PH (322) followed by BN (295), PN (265) and GTA-Pejuang (161).
In Sungai Buloh, BN’s Khairy Jamaluddin will be facing an uphill battle, as the caretaker Health Minister has been tasked to wrest PKR seat from PKR, whose incumbent R Sivarasa had won with 26,634 majority votes in 2018. Khairy will be facing six other candidates from PKR, PN, GTA-Pejuang, Parti Rakyat Malaysia and independents.
Arinah said the multi-cornered fight could cause confusion among voters, especially the first timers.
“I expect candidate outreach in these areas to be more intense in order for them to be seen. Given this, it is likely that there will be smaller margin wins by the candidates, making it a close and intense race,” she said.
“Given there is no dominant party, unlike in the past, every seat counts for each party as it gives them leverage in forming the Federal government,” she added.